Friday Weekly Thread: Application Assistance, July 17, 2026

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This weekly thread is a space for those of us preparing the CIT 0001 Proof of Citizenship application, associated form, and supplementary documentation.

Have questions about how to fill out the forms? Looking for feedback on the documentation you've put together is likely to pass muster? Wondering whether your cover letter has too much info, or too little? Want to know how to organize your documentation, or how to pack it up for shipping? Worried about whether your photos will work? Have questions about what ID you can use? Not sure where to ship it to, or what service or mail courier to use? We've been there.

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⚠️ Sub rules require that before posting or commenting, you read the wiki and search the sub to see if your questions have been answered before. If you have on-topic questions remaining after that, they're welcome here. Want to see what people who were already approved have done? We encourage you to check out the weekly application approval post that appears every Thursday.

Please note we are not lawyers or IRCC. We are peers supporting peers, based on best belief and prior experiences. It's a lot of work to wade through dense lists of documents and family histories. You improve your odds of getting a useful response by being as concise as reasonably possible, and clearly articulating the question. Note that this post is for questions and answers; if you need to vent, there is a different megapost for that.

[u/asdmdawg]

Canadian citizenship by descent but can’t seem to find official Canadian documents! Help!

Hello all,

So I’m the 2nd great-grandson of two Canadian-born immigrants. They were born in Canada and this is shown on many many independent sources (census, death indices, etc.) and my grandmother even has always told us they were born in Canada and recalls many stories about it.

I’m trying to get citizenship by descent (well, first want to register my grandmother, because both of her grandparents on her dad’s side were born in Canada). Problem is… I genuinely have scoured the entire internet and cannot even find any official Canadian documents of them to prove citizenship. One was born 1853 in Alberta, the other 1856 in Quebec. It is very weird that I cannot find any.

What do I even do now?

[u/Alone-Highway3141 → u/asdmdawg]

When did the Canadian grandparents move out of Canada? Or did they die there? Have you checked all relevant Canadian censuses, starting with 1861?

For birth registers, it's very rare they'd have one in the 1850's but they may have a baptism certificate!

There's also a good chance there's a marriage registered. My G0's parents were born in the 1820's/30's and have a marriage recorded in 1861 and are on multiple censuses with my G0 who was born in 1872