My Complete Application Package

A stack of papers with colorful paperclips and a pair of glasses sitting on a desk next to a keyboard. While I only ended up using one paper clip to attach my citizenship photos to a section divider page, the amount of paper that I had collected was a huge stack by the time I was finished!

When I finally had all of my records collected and assembled my application package, this is what I ended up including:

1. A Contents and Citation Page (for each record, I included what it was and specifically what that record showed [e.g., male child born to <parent> on <birth date> in <town> on row #])

2. Cover Letter, including a request for urgent processing and the proof to support the request

3. CIT 0001 and an addendum to Section 9 for my great-grandparent (who was my G0)

4. Two (2) Citizenship photographs

5. Two (2) proofs of personal identification - for me that was my driver’s license and US passport

6. Proof of Payment (the receipt from the online payment - they give you a PDF on the website, but they also email it to you)

7. CIT 0014 - Document Checklist Application for a Citizenship Certificate

8. Color Copies of the Supporting Documentation

   • Simplified family tree showing me as the direct descendent

   • Gen 0 - Town Birth Register (handwritten), Town Birth Register Index (typed), two (2) Canadian census records, Marriage License, Certified Death Certificate

   • Gen 1 - Certified Birth Certificate

   • Gen 2 - Certified Birth Certificate

   • Gen 3 (ME!) - Certified Birth Certificate and Certified Name Change Record

Between each section, I included a section cover page to make sure that it was easy for to navigate and it had the added benefit of helping me to make sure that I had included everything in my application.

That’s it! When I look at this list of documents, it sure felt like I had done more work than it shows, but that’s true. I had found many more records and done a lot of work to be able to get to the point that I could submit. In the end, I only wanted to submit what was necessary to prove that I was a descendent of a Canadian and I didn’t want to make the file more complicated than it needed to be

For more information on why I chose these records, check out the records post in my Step-by-Step blog