Apply for a new adult passport
How to show proof of Canadian citizenship
You must provide proof of Canadian citizenship if you’re applying for a new adult passport.
- If you submit the original proof of citizenship document, we’ll return it to you once we verify it.
- If you apply by mail, we’ll mail your document to you in a separate envelope from your new passport. It can take up to 6 weeks for you to get it back.
- Contact us if you haven’t received your supporting documents more than 6 weeks after getting your new passport.
- If you apply in person, we’ll return the document to you right away.
- If you apply by mail, we’ll mail your document to you in a separate envelope from your new passport. It can take up to 6 weeks for you to get it back.
- Unless it’s specified below, we do not accept photocopies, even if they’re signed.
You don’t need to provide proof if you’re applying to renew your passport.
On this page
- If you were born in Canada
- If you were born outside of Canada
- How to get a Canadian birth certificate
- If your name has changed
- If you updated your gender identifier
If you were born in Canada
You need to submit one of the following:
- a birth certificate
- It should be the original certificate from the province or territory where you were born.
- It can be either the long-form or short-form version.
- a Canadian citizenship certificate
- You need to provide the original certificate if it was issued on or before January 31, 2012.
- You can provide a copy or the original if either
- it was issued on or after February 1, 2012, or
- the certificate number begins with a -K or an -X
If you were born outside of Canada
You need to submit one of the following:
- a Canadian citizenship certificate
- You need to provide the original certificate if it was issued on or before January 31, 2012.
- You can provide a copy or the original if either
- it was issued on or after February 1, 2012, or
- the certificate number begins with a -K or an -X
- a certificate of naturalization
- a certificate of registration of birth abroad
- a certificate of retention of Canadian citizenship
A laminated proof of citizenship may not be accepted
We accept laminated proof of citizenship documents if they were laminated by the provincial, territorial or federal government agency that issues them.
We do not accept a laminated proof of citizenship document if
- it wasn’t originally laminated when you got it
- it says “void if laminated”
This is because lamination changes and hides the document’s original security features. We need those features to validate the document.
If you need a new proof of Canadian citizenship
- apply for a birth certificate, if you were born in Canada
- apply for a citizenship certificate, if you were born outside Canada
How to get a Canadian birth certificate
Contact the vital statistics office in the province or territory where you were born to ask for a birth certificate.
Certain provinces have different documents that we also accept as proof of Canadian citizenship:
- British Columbia: Certified True Copy of a Registration Document – Registration of Live Birth
- given in cases where the name of the bearer is more than 30 characters for the surname(s) or 30 characters for the given name(s)
- New Brunswick: certified extract of a registration document
- given in cases where the name of the bearer is more than 39 characters for the surname(s) and 30 characters for the given name(s)
- Northwest Territories: Registration of Birth, Certificate of Registration of Birth, or Registration of Live Birth
- given in cases where the surname(s) and given name(s) of the bearer are more than a total of 58 characters
- Nova Scotia: certified photocopy of a Live Birth Registration
- given in cases where the name of the bearer is more than 30 characters for the surname(s) and 38 characters for the given name(s)
- Ontario: certified copy of birth registration
- Quebec: birth certificate or copy of an act of birth issued after January 1, 1994, from the Directeur de l’état civil
If your name has changed
Your proof of citizenship can have either your new name or your previous name.
If you updated your gender identifier
You need to submit a completed Request – Sex or gender identifier – Adult 16 years or older [PPTC 643] (PDF, 1.07 MB) form if
- your proof of Canadian citizenship doesn’t have a sex field and
- your gender identifier isn’t supported by your previous passport