Federal government increases Canada’s citizenship application fees

The cost to become a Canadian citizen has gone up. Starting at midnight on March 31, 2025, adults applying for citizenship now have to pay a higher fee. The new fee is $119.75 for the right of citizenship, which used to be $100. This change affects permanent residents who apply on or after this date.

Anyone who submitted a full application online before March 31 and paid the old $100 fee won’t have to pay more. Their application will be processed under the previous cost. However, those who sent paper applications before the deadline might have to pay the difference between the old and new fee.

Who Needs to Pay the New Fee?

Permanent residents who are 18 or older must now pay two fees when applying:

• A $530 processing fee
  
• A $119.75 right of citizenship fee
  

That brings the total to $649.75. Before March 31, the total cost was $630. Stateless adults born to Canadian parents also have to pay this new higher amount.

Minors under 18 are not affected by this change. They still only need to pay the $100 processing fee. That fee has not changed.

How to Become a Canadian Citizen

People can become Canadian citizens through a process called naturalization. To do this, they must meet the following conditions:

• They must be permanent residents.
  
• They must have lived in Canada for at least 1,095 days (three years) in the past five years.
  
• If required by law, they must have filed taxes for those five years.
  
• Applicants between ages 18 and 54 must take a citizenship test.
  
• They must show they can speak English or French at a basic level (CLB 4).
  

Children under 18 do not have to meet the physical presence requirement.

Once all steps are complete, applicants are invited to a citizenship ceremony. This can be virtual or in person. At the ceremony, anyone 14 years or older must take the oath of citizenship.

The current wait time to process a citizenship application is about eight months.

A free online calculator is available to help permanent residents check if they qualify for citizenship.