The Pros and Cons to Canadian Citizenship

I recently received two ques­tions about my still rel­a­tively new Cana­dian cit­i­zen­ship. One reader asked me if there were any draw­backs to apply­ing for Cana­dian cit­i­zen­ship and another asked me why I decided to become Cana­dian. Since apply­ing for Cana­dian cit­i­zen­ship is usu­ally the ulti­mate goal for most per­ma­nent res­i­dents, I’m going to try to answer both questions.

I Can Vote!

On March 4^th, I went to accom­plish my duty as a new Cana­dian cit­i­zen: I voted for the first time in Canada at the provin­cial bylec­tion in Ottawa West-Nepean.I drove to the polling sta­tion slightly hon­ored I could now vote. I know, I’m weird.
By com­par­i­son, vot­ing in France is more cer­e­mo­ni­ous. I received my carte d’électeur when I turned 18 and I couldn’t wait to use it.

My Brand New Canadian Passport!

Two weeks ago, I com­pleted what I hope is my last paper­works for a while. But it was worth it: today, I picked my Cana­dian pass­port up!

Apply­ing for a Cana­dian pass­port is not that easy though: ref­er­ences, guar­an­tors… what is that??

Citizenship Ceremony In Ottawa

As of this morn­ing, 12:30…I am Canadian!

We arrived at the Sci­ences and Tech­nol­ogy museum around 11:00 am. It didn’t start very well: it was rain­ing and there had been a power out­age and we queued in the dark. Have you ever tried to sign a bunch of papers with the help of a flash­light? Not my best sig­na­ture, I’d bet.

I made It

I knew this enve­lope, with the lit­tle Cana­dian flag on it: it had brought me good news and bad news over the last five years. I was usu­ally in a hurry to ripe it open, to read the let­ter inside. But this time, I paused.

Citizenship Exam Day In Ottawa

So here I was, this morn­ing, try­ing to remem­ber which province joined the Con­fed­er­a­tion last (in case you want to know, it’s New­found­land in 1949).

Damn, I Wish I Had Known That...!

I Have just received the pre­cious let­ter from Cit­i­zen­ship and Immi­gra­tion: on June 11^th, I’m invited to write my cit­i­zen­ship test.

Welcome Home...

The city hasn’t changed… I guess it never really does. It’s both com­fort­able and slightly dis­turb­ing to slip into our old lives, like noth­ing happened.