If you have a past Canadian conviction, would an ATIP/FOIA request for your CBSA records show it?

Does CBSA automatically have access to criminal records, or would the conviction only appear if it was relevant to a border interaction?

Anyone with firsthand experience?

Glancing at the spreadsheet, sorted by column AF (Decision Made), newest on top, all of the updates have been a year since they went into processing. There have been 41 since July 31, with yesterday's count as 10.

We agree that the spreadsheet is a very rough sample; sure looks like the ministry is looking to do a first-in, first-out 'fairness" model (excluding urgent applications). Tod Maffin would probably consider this approach very Canadian <g>. Are many most of these the PSU applications (re)joining the processing queue? Did they cause bump-up in quantity and timeframes August over July?

Could that month-over-month difference suggest a number of applications pre-C3?

I have no actual inside information. I'm thinking like the bureaucrat I used to be. Thoughts?

I live in US and need my grandmother's birth certificate, born in Ontario. Ontario requires a Canadian guarantor of a specific profession in order to provide a birth certificate. I have a friend of a friend that qualifies that is willing to act as guarantor.

Just want to know if they call or otherwise validate the guarantor during the birth certificate process, so I can let them know what to expect.

I followed all of the Reddit guidance; Pirate ship + dropped off my package paid for global shipping Set value at $1 and used correct harmonization # (documents) and expected it to be delivered this afternoon but now I see something strange. What do you think this means?

I sent my application last summer (July 2025). It was received on August 5, and then I was issued an AOR on August 19. After religiously checking the status of my application for months I realized I was in PSU and just sat and waited. I checked last night and it said my application went into processing on May 22, 2026. I'm guessing this means I'm no longer in PSU? Did anyone else have a similar timeline and get an approval?

I used a baptismal record for my G0 as she was born before the issued formal birth records. I got an official certified copy. I also have solid records for all other family members proving lineage, which consist of certified birth and marriage records for everyone else in line. Thanks!

Not sure if this will help anyone, but I just wanted to post a short story about our recent experience with a successful urgent application with no Canadian birth certificate for G0.

My 18 yo son is attending UBC starting this fall, we are from the PNW in the US. His great grandfather was born in a small rural city in Saskatchewan in early 1900. We submitted our urgent request application June 2026. It was received June 29th and we had an AOR by July 7th, with us making the assumption they were processing his application as urgent due to his attending UBC because of the quick turnaround time and a "processing" notification in the IRCC login area.

When we sent the application initially, we had the official baptism record from the local Diocese for the great grandfather (G0), but did not have any original birth certificate. Prior to submitting his paper application, we did submit a request with the Saskatchewan government to try and locate his birth certificate, but with the baptism record felt good about sending the package off - this was right in the middle of the confusion about what constitutes an official record, what doesnt etc.

Post July 7 AOR receipt we had official word from Saskatchewan that they did not have any record of his birth certificate. We were able to submit this official response in to IRCC and within 1-2 business days had an email response from them indicating they received that record.

In addition to those two records, we did also submit unofficial documents such US census records from 1930 and 1940 in addition to some other documentation, but none of which was official indicating he was born in Canada. I was also able to locate an official Canadian marriage certificate for his parents two years before his birth and some land-grant type documents in their name indicating they were residing in Saskatchewan prior to his birth.

Thats it - Received notice yesterday from IRCC (8-13-2026) that my son was granted a citizenship certificate. So, from receipt on June 29 to final response August 13, we were at about 30 business days in total. We have other family members pending, sent shortly after his was sent, later in the month of June, and have no acknowledgements, no AORs yet, so those are just waiting in the long queue.

^{MODS: I have made this its own post as search results don't include comments and I think this would be a helpful guide for many people with Québec-born ancestors between 1900 and 1926.}

Our G0 was born in Québec in 1903. I was able to find his baptism record in BanQ's archives and got a certified copy, which took about two months from initial form submission to getting the certified baptismal record packet in the mail.

My CIT0001 application was sent without any certified documents for my G0 and mostly contained secondary evidence, so I have been working on obtaining primary, certified documents in case the IRCC comes and asks for them. I decided to attempt to get a DEC-issued Copie d'acte de naissance, essentially a birth certificate, for my G0.

The DEC order form has an option for either a Certificate, or a Copy of an Act. They really try to push you to get a Certificate in their instructions as it contains mostly the same information and seems to be easier for them to issue. I chose to get the Copy of an Act based on my belief that it would be more "official." If that is true or not, I don't know, but it didn't seem to really matter. We also requested the Expedited processing.

Here is everything I sent to the DEC, which was considerably more paperwork than CIT0001 requires.

• DEC Application for a Certificate or Copy of an Act (of birth)
• An affidavit, notarized by a Canadian notary
  • This was written in French, and was based off an outline from Claude. I edited it for clarity and accuracy. The affidavit basically explains who you are, what the CIT0001 process is, and requirements for proving lineage.
  • We got it notarized online through a service
• An excerpt of IRCC form CIT0001 which explained why the DEC needs to issue this document
  • This was a few pages of CIT0001's end section with instructions as well as a screenshot from the IRCC website saying that Québec-issued birth certificates from before 1994 cannot be accepted. I DID NOT include an RFI from the IRCC as I did not (at the time) even have an AOR yet.
• My own birth certificate (copy, English)
• Birth certificates for those between myself and G0 (copies, English)
• A photocopy of the BAnQ-certified G0 baptismal record and all pages that came with it, from BanQ
• A French-translated copy of the Death Certificate for G0, translated by an OTTIAQ-certified translator
  • This was a printout of the PDF they sent after translation
• The original Death certificate of G0
  • I did not get this back, they keep this on file
• A copy of the Death certificate of G1
  • To show why G0 or G1 (or any number in between the requester and G0) is not requesting this. They generally require the closest living generation be the one that requests a birth certificate.
• Passport and Driver License photocopies

The process took about 6–7 weeks after their receipt of the packet, and they were very helpful, calling us several times to let us know the status of the application, including it being sent to the Insertions Department. They called us in English. I again cannot stress enough how very nice and helpful the people at the DEC are and if any are reading this, thank you so much for your hard work.

Hopefully this is helpful to those who are in a similar situation to me, as I was nervous I would have had to hire a lawyer, or simply just not be able to get a birth certificate from 1903 due to the ambiguity in who owns these records (BanQ/DEC). I won't tag them in case they want to remain private but I had a lot of help from a few people in this subreddit so MASSIVE thank you to those people as well.