Canadian Citizenship | the end of the infinite process

Today, after almost 6 years on Canadian soil, we attend the citizenship ceremony and become Canadian citizens.

Wow, what a long wait! But our process took almost 3 years!

Generally we think that as it is required only 3 years (discounted the days off) on Canadian soil to apply for citizenship, but in the head is that impression that it is really only the 3 years to be able to have a second homeland. Obviously not quite so, since we expect almost double, right?! See the first part of our "infinite" citizenship process here.

According to the Immigration Canada (www.cic.gc.ca) website, citizenship processes are currently with long waiting periods, ranging from 25 to 35 months.

Coincidence or not, a few days after my outraged post in February this year, we received the card to attend the citizenship test.

March 8th we took the citizenship test, but not without first spending the week studying and learning a little more about Canada's history.

Many people say that it is bearded, but after doing some simulated, we decided not to give chance to bad luck or possible nervousness (white) at the time of the test and we studied for real.

There were 20 multiple choice questions, the candidate has to hit 16, which is not difficult, but some questions can be confusing, especially those referring to specific dates or names. I think about 2 or 3 of this style fell on my test (which are all different).

We have recorded some test questions, if you are interested I can put together a post about it … Let me know. Leaving the test, we were informed that we would receive the invitation letter to the citizenship ceremony within 3 months (in case we passed…).

We have heard that in some cities, you already receive the result, whether or not you passed the test, shortly after finishing (you wait and they tell you). But in our case, nothing was said.

And then it passed 1, it passed 2, 3 and 4 months and nothing of our ceremony. I called there 2 times after the full 3 months and the first time they informed me that they had not passed our result to the general office yet (really?!) and the second they told us that yes, they had passed, but that they had not had the date of the ceremony yet , which could be until September, and if nothing happened by then, we could contact them again.

Finally, on July 22, in an unpretentious visit to the mailbox, I spotted the grizzly envelopinhos of the CIC and we were super happy.

So today, date of the ceremony, we return to the same place of the test, to swear / affirm allegiance to the queen and Canada, we listen to the speech of the judge, raise our right hand at the time of the oath, we gain a certificate, a flag and a brooch and finally, we sing the anthem (which we decorated last night … hehe).

Needless to say, it was a great moment. Really a milestone in our life as immigrants or expatriates.

Not necessarily by the speech or the ceremony itself, but deep down we feel that we have fulfilled this great stage in our lives that was to decide to live in another country.

Starting with taking action to make it happen, getting here and starting from scratch and after many challenges and many achievements, end up being officially welcomed by this country we chose, Canada.