Citizenship test is the last step before the grant of Canadian citizenship. Unlike citizenship tests in other countries, the test in Canada is usually a group event: sometimes, several hundred people sit the test together, which is why it is usually held in cultural centres or sport facilities. Before the test, the prospective citizen’s identity needs to be established. Your invitation to the citizenship test will clearly indicate what documents you will have to bring with you. Typically, such documents are your current passport, birth certificate, drivers license, etc. Documents in languages other than Engish or French must be translated into either English or French by a sworn translator. Citizenship officers will check the validity of the documents and confirm that the person present at the test is the actual passport holder and the candidate for Canadian citizenship. They will also check the passport for possible travel stamps. If you seem to have “too many”, they may mark your test form so that your absences are checked more thoroughly. Your stamps in the passport must coincide with the absences from Canada stated in the Application Form which you filled in at the very beginning of your naturalization process.
Examinees are given pencils with an eraser tip, and forms where you will have to fill in the answers when the test starts. You will be asked not to look at the test papers before the official start of the citizenship test, as it is timed. Officers will first explain how to use the reply sheet, which are processed by computers and therefore need to be filled in in a very specific way. All explanations will be given in English and in French. In places where French is not widely used, they will ask if anybody requires explanations in French.
The actual citizenship test includes 20 questions which need to be answered in 30 minutes. You must answer 12 of them correctly in order to pass. The tricky part is that 3 of these 20 questions will be “mandatory”, which means that you must answer every one of them correctly in order to pass. Thus, if you answer 19 questions correctly, and only make one single mistake, but it happens to be a mandatory question, you will fail nonetheless.
When you are ready - and some people finish the test under 10 minutes - you can simply stand up, surrender your test papers to the officer nearest to you, and exit the test area. Unless you fail, you will not be notified of the results of the citizenship test; the invitation to take the oath of citizenship will imply that you passed the Canadian citizenship test successfully.
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