New permanent residents to Canada can now quickly and easily confirm their status online without any need for an in-person interview in most cases simply by going to the secure Permanent Residence Portal of the federal government.
The first step in doing that, though, is to ensure the received email asking the permanent resident to do that has, in fact, come from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
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When these emails legitimately come from the IRCC, the email address of the sender will end in @cic.gc.ca and the email itself will be in both French and English.
Always. Do not trust any other emails that purport to come from IRCC and demand personal information that have any other email address.
Only Respond to Genuine Emails
Every legitimate email asking a permanent resident to confirm his or her status will come with the subject “IRCC – Permanent Residence Portal (PR Confirmation) / Portail de résidence permanente (Confirmation de la RP)” and link to this website address.
New permanent residents who do not receive this email in their in-box should check their junk mail or spam folders to see if the message is there as sometimes the email filters will send them there.
Once at the Permanent Residence Portal, new permanent residents will be asked:
- to declare they are in Canada;
- to confirm their address, and;
- to submit a recent photo IRCC can use to make the applicant’s permanent residency card.
Canada’s immigration officials sometimes return an applicant’s photograph and ask for another one if the submitted photo is too dark, the background isn’t white, the facial features are unrecognizable, or there is glare on the photograph.
When applicants then submit another photograph, the IRCC asks that it be in the JPEG or PNG formats. These can be a scanned professional photo or just a selfie, as long as it meets the requirements.
Those photographs can be replaced with others – but only until the applicant hits the “submit” button. Once that’s done, the photograph can no longer be changed.
Immigration Representatives Not Allowed Account Access
Immigration consultants or lawyers can provide valuable advice to new permanent residents navigating this online portal and charge a fee to do so but these professionals are not allowed to either sign into the portal using the applicant’s username and password or declare the applicant is in Canada for them.
Late last year, Canada launched its online application citizenship tool to determine its real-world capabilities before going live with the final version in mid-August this year.
It’s now open for online citizenship applications to all applicants aged 18 and over who:
- are applying as an individual (not as a family);
- do not have a representative, and;
- are not declaring a residence outside Canada as a crown servant or with a crown servant family member.
Canadian Immigration Department Launches Online Citizenship Portal
The IRCC will open the online application website to families (groups) and minors under 18 years of age later this year and to representatives to apply on behalf of their clients and clients who are declaring a residence outside Canada as a crown servant or with a crown servant family member in 2022.
Permanent residents are eligible for Canadian citizenship if they:
- have lived in Canada for three out of the last five years;
- have filed their income tax reports;
- can pass a citizenship test, and;
- meet the language requirements.
There are, of course, circumstances that could make a permanent resident ineligible for Canadian citizenship, such as having committed a crime. Immigration officials advise anyone who is uncertain as to their eligibility for citizenship to contact their lawyer or arresting officer.
