Citizenship Certificate Number If You Were Born in Canada: What to Enter

If you were born in Canada, you almost certainly do not have a citizenship certificate number. You became a citizen at birth, and your provincial birth certificate is your proof of citizenship. When a bank or other form asks for a citizenship certificate number, it usually wants proof that you are a citizen, and for you that proof is the birth certificate.

A citizenship certificate is a document Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issues as proof of citizenship. You have one, and a number on it, if you:

• became a citizen through naturalization, after living in Canada as a permanent resident;
• are a citizen by descent, born outside Canada to a Canadian parent, and applied for proof of citizenship;
• were born in Canada but applied for a certificate anyway, which is rare.

If none of these apply, there is no number to find. People born in Canada do not receive a certificate automatically, and you do not need one.

Read what the form is actually asking for. Most forms that ask for a citizenship certificate number are trying to confirm that you are a Canadian citizen, and they expect different proof from different people.

• If the form offers a choice of document, pick your birth certificate and enter its registration or certificate number.
• If the field is only for a citizenship certificate number, enter "N/A" or "Not applicable" if the form allows it, or leave it blank, and note that you were born in Canada.
• If you are filling it in with someone, such as at a bank, tell them you were born in Canada and show your birth certificate. Staff see this question every day.

Do not enter your Social Insurance Number, your passport number, or a made-up number in that field. Each of those is a different document, and a mismatch can hold up whatever you are applying for.

This is where the citizenship certificate number matters. If you were born outside Canada to a Canadian parent, you may already be a Canadian citizen without any document that proves it. Your proof is a citizenship certificate, and you get it by applying to IRCC on form CIT 0001, the application for a citizenship certificate. The same form is used to replace a lost certificate.

Since the Bill C-3 changes, many Americans with a Canadian parent, grandparent or earlier ancestor are in exactly this position: Canadian on paper, but with no number to put on a form. Our CIT 0001 instruction guide walks through the application section by section.

If you do have a certificate, the number is printed on the certificate itself. If you have lost it, IRCC can issue a new one through the same CIT 0001 application; you will need to prove your citizenship again with the documents you used the first time.

I was born in Canada. Do I have a citizenship certificate number? Almost certainly not. Your birth certificate is your proof of citizenship.

Is my birth certificate number the same as a citizenship certificate number? No. They are different documents. Enter your birth certificate number only where the form asks for proof of citizenship or lets you choose the document.

Is my Social Insurance Number my citizenship number? No. A Social Insurance Number is for work, taxes and benefits, and it says nothing about citizenship.

If you were born outside Canada and think a parent or grandparent makes you Canadian, MaplePass checks your eligibility for free and builds the CIT 0001 application that gets you the certificate, and its number.