Appendix A – The Glossary 3

Last Updated on November 16, 2016

Citizenship Ceremony (or Clerk of the Ceremony or Presiding Officer): This refers to the final step towards becoming a Canadian citizen. During the citizenship ceremony, the candidates for citizenship aged 14 years and over would need to take the oath of citizenship. After taking the oath, the new citizens would receive their citizenship certificates. For more details, refer to the definitions of the terms ‘Oath of Citizenship’ and ‘Citizenship Judge’.

Citizenship Commission: This denotes the administrative body that comprises all citizenship judges working across Canada

Citizenship Hearing: This refers to the interview with the citizenship judge. During the interview, the judge would assess whether an applicant meets the requirements for receiving a grant of citizenship.

Citizenship Judge: This refers to an independent, quasi-judicial decision maker. This decision maker is responsible for making legal decisions on residency requirements for some adult citizenship applications. In addition, the citizenship judge administers the oath of Canadian citizenship as well. Furthermore, the citizenship judge is also responsible for presiding over the citizenship ceremonies. For more details, refer to the definitions of the terms ‘Oath of Citizenship’ and ‘Citizenship Ceremony’.

Citizenship Officer (or Clerk of the Ceremony): This denotes a person authorised by the Minister to perform the duties of a citizenship officer as prescribed by the Citizenship Regulations. A citizenship officer would need to:

Review the applications to see whether a person meets the requirements for Canadian citizenship and conduct interviews and hearings with the applicants as necessary
Plan interviews, tests, hearings and citizenship ceremonies
Grant citizenship to applicants and,
Provide written decision of refusal to applicants including the reasons for the refusal

The Minister has the authority to authorise citizenship officers based on the provisions of the Citizenship Act.

Citizenship Test: Citizenship applicants would need to prove their knowledge of Canada. For this, they would typically need to take a citizenship test. The authorities require applicants between the ages of 14 and 64 years (on the date of application) to take the test. The test is usually a written test. On occasions, a citizenship officer could consider taking it orally as well. The citizenship test aims to assess the applicant’s knowledge of:

Canada and,
The responsibilities and privileges of citizenship

Client Identification Number: People also refer to this as a Unique Client Identifier (UCI). It can be found on any official document issued by a Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) office, Case Processing Centre (CPC) or a Canadian visa office outside Canada. A client id will usually comprise four numbers, a hyphen i.e. (-) and four more numbers. An example could be 1234-1234. It is worth mentioning that a person who has never dealt with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) before will usually not have a Client Identification Number.

College (or Community College or Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel (CEGEP) in Quebec): This refers to a stage of higher education that typically comes right after high school. Many colleges usually offer one to three year diploma programs in academic or technical subjects.

Commitment Certificate: This refers to a certificate of commitment issued to an applicant by a designated private sector business. This certificate serves the purpose of confirming the agreement between the business owner and the applicant.

Common-law Partner (or Common-law Spouse): This refers to a person who has been living with another person in a conjugal relationship for at least one year. This term applies to both opposite sex and same sex relationships. For more details, readers would need to view the legal definition of common-law partner as specified by the authorities.

Community Sponsor: This denotes an organisation that usually sponsors refugees but has not signed a formal agreement with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC). A community sponsor would usually sponsor fewer refugees than a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH).

Competency: This refers to a measurable skill or a set of skills, level of knowledge and behavioural practices that a person has gained through formal, non-formal or informal learning

Confirmation of Permanent Residence (CoPR) i.e. IMM 5292 or IMM 5509: Viewers would be able to find this number in the top right corner of their Confirmation of Permanent Residence (CoPR) document issued by a Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) office or by the visa office where they submitted their applications. The Confirmation of Permanent Residence (CoPR) number will usually start with a ‘T’ followed by nine numbers e.g. T123456789.

Conjugal Partner: This refers to a person outside Canada who has had a binding relationship with a sponsor for at least one year, but could not live with the partner. This term applies to both opposite sex and same sex relationships.

Constituent Group (or Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH)): This refers to a group authorised in writing by a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH). This group thus receives the ability to sponsor refugees under the terms of the sponsorship agreement with the Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH). An example of a constituent group could be a local congregation or chapter of a national church or organisation that is a Sponsorship Agreement Holder (SAH).

Consulate (or Mission): This denotes a Government of Canada office, which could be located in a major city other than a national capital. This mission or consulate typically provides services to Canadian citizens abroad. It may or may not provide any immigration services. For more details, refer to the definitions of the terms ‘Visa Office’, ‘High Commission’ and ‘Embassy’.

Contact Information: This refers to a person’s name, mailing address, telephone number, e-mail address and fax number (if any). For more details, readers would need to go through the legal definition of contact information.

Convention Refugee: This refers to a person who is outside of their home country or country where they usually live. These individuals will usually fear returning to that country because of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of: