How Much Does It Cost to Become a Canadian Citizen?

Sonic Team

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Date of publishing : Jul 4, 2023 , 10:00 AM

Many individuals choose to relocate to foreign countries with the hope of improving their financial prospects and ultimately obtaining citizenship in their new homeland. You must meet specific requirements in order to obtain permanent residency in another nation.

The majority of individuals think that Canada is the nation where citizenship and immigration are the most straightforward processes. The nation provides top-notch employment prospects and educational chances.

Anyone can get a Permanent Residence Visa through Express Entry or other immigration programs if eligible. After holding the PR for a considerable time, usually more than three years, you can apply for Canadian citizenship.

Though the process is easy, the cost to become a Canadian Citizenship is quite reasonable. Let us explore what it costs to become a Canadian citizen in this article.

What are the requirements for becoming a Canadian citizen?

Citizenship offers an individual a legal or social status that grants certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities within a country. To achieve the status the individual must meet the requirements set by the government of the country. Here are the criteria set by the Canadian government to become a Canadian citizen:

• You must be a permanent resident
• You must have lived in Canada for 3 out of the last 5 years
• You must have filed your taxes, if you need to
• You must pass a test on your rights, responsibilities, and knowledge of Canada
• You must prove your language skills

Depending on your situation, such as applying for citizenship for a minor or adopted child born outside Canada there may be additional requirements.

Are Permanent Residency and Citizenship different?

Before you can apply for Canadian citizenship, the basic requirement you must have is the permanent residency (PR) which gives you permission to live in Canada without any limitation of time and visa. But it doesn’t allow you to enjoy all the rights that a Canadian citizen does, for example, the right to vote or to get a Canadian passport. Even though you had a permanent residency, still you are a citizen of other countries until you get citizenship in Canada.

The right to vote and permission to apply for a Canadian passport comes with citizenship. You must have lived in Canada for at two years of every five years as a Canadian resident. If not you will be at risk of losing your permanent residency. Once you attain citizenship in Canada, you no longer worry about the time spend in Canada.

How much does it cost to become a Canadian citizen?

The cost to apply for citizenship in Canada involves the cost to apply for permanent residency (if you don’t have one yet), the cost for applying a language proficiency test, and biometrics expenses. Let us explore each cost one by one.

How much is the cost to apply for permanent residency in Canada?

Before you are applying for citizenship in Canada, you must have a permanent residency regardless of your age. This includes having no immigration or fraud issues, no removal orders, and fulfilling PR status conditions, like medical screening. To apply for a Permanent residency, you must have been in Canada for at least 730 days during the last 5 years.

The good news is, you don't need a current permanent resident card to apply for a permanent residency. An expired PR card is enough to be used to apply. Here are the costs to apply for a permanent residency in Canadian dollars.

If you want to apply for permanent residency for the other family members you need to pay $1080 per person and $155 per child. There are additional costs that are associated with the permanent residency. Here they are,

What is the cost of the Language Proficiency Test in Canada?

As part of the citizenship application process, applicants between the ages of 18 and 54 are required to demonstrate language proficiency in English or French. They can take designated language tests such as the IELTS or CELPIP for English or TEF for French. You must receive a score of 4 or above (up to 12) on the CELPIP LS test in both Listening and Speaking in order to achieve citizenship. Here is the table of CELPIP levels and the descriptor assigned based on the Canadian Language Benchmark Levels (CLB).

The cost for language proficiency tests in Canada such as IELTS or CELPIP for English and TEF for French usually ranges from $250 to $300. The cost of these tests may vary based on the test center.

What are the costs associated with biometrics in Canada?

The applicants were required to provide their biometrics as part of the permanent residency, work or study permit, or visa application process. Biometrics involves fingerprinting and a digital photograph. The fee for biometrics was CAD 85 per applicant or CAD 170 per family.

What is the cost of a Citizenship Application in Canada?

Citizenship is extremely important because of its implications for the daily lives of individuals in every country. Once an individual achieves citizenship in Canada he gets the rights to enjoy the legal benefits, which may include the rights to vote, to hold public office, to social security, to health services, to public education, to permanent residency, to own land, or to engage in employment, amongst others.

Once an individual has met the requirements for residency and language proficiency, they can apply for Canadian citizenship. On April 30, 2022, the government of Canada increased the cost to apply for permanent residency and Citizenship. The cost for application for adult applicants is CAD 630 per person, which includes the processing fee and the right of citizenship fee. For children (under 18 years of age), the cost is CAD 100.

What are the additional costs that should be known to everyone?

While the above fees cover the essential costs of the application process, there might be other expenses to consider. These could include translation services for documents not in English or French, and travel costs if an in-person interview or test is required. These may vary depending on the translator, or the type of transportation you prefer. There is something important to know are the other citizenship fees and services. They are,

What payment methods can be used to pay the fee for citizenship?

Everyone knows that we can apply for citizenship in Canada online but in some situations, people can apply for citizenship on paper. People who spent time outside Canada as a crown servant or a family member of a crown servant, in their physical presence calculation can apply on paper. But people can pay the application fees only on online; there is no offline payment option.

You can pay the application fee through credit, debit, or prepaid card. They accept credit or prepaid cards from Visa, MasterCard, JCB, American Express, and UnionPay and debit cards from MasterCard and Visa. Or you can rely on a reliable global payment service like sonic wallet which allows payment from credit, debit, or prepaid card. This option offers a convenient and secure way to complete your payment. Not only to pay the fee you can make use of the global payment service to send and receive payments all over the world.