Federal Government Increases Fees for Canadian Citizenship

As of midnight on March 31, 2025, Canada has increased the right of citizenship fee for adults applying for Canadian citizenship. Permanent residents who submit their citizenship applications on or after this date must now pay a revised fee of $119.75, up from the previous $100.

Who Is Impacted by This Change?

• Online applicants: If you submitted a complete online application and paid the $100 fee before midnight on March 31, this fee increase does not apply to you.
  
• Paper applicants: Those who submitted paper applications before the deadline may need to pay the additional amount to match the new total.
  
• New applicants (after March 31): You must now pay the updated fee.
  

Breakdown of Citizenship Fees

For adults (18 years and older), applying for Canadian citizenship involves two fees:

• Processing Fee: $530
• Right of Citizenship Fee: $119.75

This brings the total cost to $649.75, which is an increase from the earlier amount of $630.

Stateless adults born to Canadian parents are also subject to the new $119.75 right of citizenship fee.

Minors (under 18 years old) are only required to pay the $100 processing fee, which remains unchanged.

Path to Citizenship: Eligibility Requirements

To become a Canadian citizen through naturalization, individuals must meet the following criteria under the Canadian Citizenship Act:

• Hold permanent resident status
• Be physically present in Canada for at least 1,095 days (3 years) within the past 5 years
• File taxes, if required, during the same 5-year period
• Pass the Canadian citizenship test (for applicants aged 18 to 54)
• Show language proficiency in English or French at CLB level 4 (for applicants aged 18 to 54)

Note: Minors are not required to meet the physical presence requirement.

Once approved, new citizens attend a citizenship ceremony, either virtually or in person, where applicants aged 14 or older must take the Oath of Citizenship.

Additional Tools and Processing Times

Permanent residents can use CanadaVisa’s free online citizenship eligibility calculator to determine if they qualify for citizenship.

Currently, the processing time for Canadian citizenship applications is estimated to be around eight months.

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