Subvención acelerada de las Fuerzas Armadas Canadienses (s.5(1.2)/(1.3))

CA-NAT-03 es la subvención de ciudadanía acelerada de las Fuerzas Armadas Canadienses (CAF), una vía rápida dentro del marco de naturalización de adultos del artículo 5(1) que reconoce el servicio militar. Según la Ley de ciudadanía, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29, s.5(1.2)/(1.3), un residente permanente que preste servicio en o con la CAF (o un miembro militar extranjero adscrito o adscrito a la CAF) que haya completado tres años (1095 días) de servicio en la CAF dentro de los seis años (2190 días) inmediatamente antes de presentar la solicitud está exento del requisito de presencia física de la sección 5(1)(c), a menos que sea liberado de manera no honorable. Esta NO es una clase de ciudadanía separada: el solicitante aún se convierte en ciudadano mediante una subvención del artículo 5(1); sólo el miembro de residencia es reemplazado por el servicio calificado. Se siguen aplicando todas las demás condiciones estándar de ciudadanía, incluido (para solicitantes de 18 a menos de 55 años) un idioma adecuado y la prueba de conocimiento de Canadá, las prohibiciones del artículo 22 y el juramento de ciudadanía. IRCC publica un flujo de aplicaciones de vía rápida dedicado. La ruta es un camino de bajo volumen pero establecido en honor a los miembros del servicio; la tasa de subvención para adultos de CAD 653 se aplica igual que a los solicitantes ordinarios del artículo 5(1).

Three principal profiles fit CA-NAT-03. First, the permanent-resident CAF member: a landed immigrant who enlists (Regular or Reserve Force) and accumulates 1,095 days of service within a six-year window; they use the fast track to obtain citizenship without separately meeting the 1,095-day physical-presence test, though they remain subject to language, knowledge, and oath requirements. Second, the foreign military member on exchange attached or seconded to the CAF: this person need not hold permanent residence and is relieved of the tax-filing obligation, but must still complete the qualifying service and meet the remaining standard conditions. Third, the former member who has been released: they may use the fast track only if the release was honourable. The route particularly benefits members posted or deployed abroad, whose foreign deployment time would otherwise erode their in-Canada physical presence; qualifying CAF service substitutes for that presence. The route does not extend to family members in their own right (a spouse or child of a serving member instead relies on the separate ss.5(1.01)-(1.03) day-for-day presence credit and applies through the ordinary s.5(1) stream).

Applicants use the dedicated CAF citizenship application (the IRCC 'Application for Canadian Citizenship - Canadian Armed Forces' package), distinct from the standard adult CIT 0002 grant package. Core supporting documents mirror the adult s.5(1) grant under (document checklist CIT 0007) adapted for service: proof of permanent-resident status (PR card / Confirmation of Permanent Residence) for the PR class; two pieces of personal identification; and, for applicants aged 18 to less than 55, acceptable proof of English or French at CLB/NCLC Level 4 (e.g., results of an approved language test or evidence of education in English/French). Service-specific evidence is required to establish the 1,095 days of CAF service within the six-year window: certification of CAF service and, where applicable, evidence of honourable release. A foreign military member attached or seconded provides proof of the attachment/secondment to the CAF rather than PR documentation, and is not required to provide tax-filing proof. PR-class applicants provide proof of meeting income-tax filing obligations for three taxation years within the six-year window. Photographs and the signed application complete the package. Document standards (translation/certification) follow IRCC's general citizenship requirements.

The process tracks the ordinary citizenship grant, with the residency limb satisfied by service rather than presence: (1) confirm eligibility (1,095 days of CAF service in the prior six years; honourable status; all other standard conditions); (2) gather forms and documents using the CAF fast-track application package, including CAF service certification; (3) pay the applicable fees (the adult-grant fee of CAD 653, comprising CAD 530 processing plus the CAD 123 Right of Citizenship Fee) and submit the application; (4) IRCC reviews completeness and conducts prohibitions and admissibility checks; (5) if aged 18 to less than 55, the applicant is invited to take the citizenship test (knowledge of Canada) and to demonstrate language proficiency; (6) on approval, the applicant is scheduled for a citizenship ceremony and takes the Oath of Citizenship (required for those 14 and over); and (7) the citizenship certificate is issued, completing the grant. The fast-track designation is intended to speed handling; IRCC processes the application ahead of routine grants where service-member priority applies. Because the grant is mandatory under s.5(1) once the modified criteria are met, an officer's role is verification rather than discretion.

IRCC markets the CAF route as a 'fast-track' process that speeds up the citizenship application for permanent residents serving in the CAF and for foreign military members on exchange, but it does not publish a separate posted processing-time figure for the CAF stream as of 2026-06-01. The general posted processing time for an adult citizenship grant is about 13 months, against a published 12-month service standard in the IRCC 2026-27 Departmental Plan; CAF fast-track handling is intended to be faster than the routine queue but the precise expedited interval is not separately quantified on the CAF page. The live IRCC processing-time widget errored at fetch on 2026-06-01, so the 13-month general figure is taken from the canada.ca-indexed render and should be re-pinned same-day before being hard-cited; do not assert a numeric expedited CAF interval without a same-day IRCC confirmation. Members with a pressing operational need may also be eligible for urgent processing under the general urgent-processing route. [TEMPORAL CAVEAT: re-verify the live month-count at QA.]

La vía rápida de CAF conlleva la tarifa estándar de concesión de ciudadanía para adultos, que es de 653 CAD en total a partir del 1 de junio de 2026, compuesta por una tarifa de procesamiento de 530 CAD más la tarifa de derecho de ciudadanía (RCF) de 123 CAD. El RCF aumentó de CAD 119,75 a CAD 123,00 a partir del 31 de marzo de 2026 (la tarifa de procesamiento se mantuvo sin cambios en CAD 530,00) y se aplica a las solicitudes recibidas en esa fecha o después; El RCF se indexa anualmente según la Ley de Tarifas de Servicio, por lo que se espera un pequeño ajuste adicional alrededor de la primavera de 2027. El total de la subvención para adultos heredada de CAD 630 y un RCF de CAD 100 o CAD 119,75 están obsoletos y no deben citarse como actuales. No hay recargo ni descuento específico de la ruta CAF, ni aplica inversión ni tarifa por servicio especial. Un miembro militar extranjero adscrito o adscrito que esté exento del requisito de relaciones públicas paga la misma tarifa de subvención al presentar la solicitud. (Las cifras de tarifas están fijadas en la lista de tarifas del IRCC y en el aviso de aumento de RCF; los datos numéricos no se generan a partir de datos de capacitación).

La autoridad estatutaria operativa es la Ley de ciudadanía, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29, artículos 5(1.2) y artículo 5(1.3). La sección 5(1.2) exime a un residente permanente que es o fue miembro de la CAF (o que está o estuvo adscrito o adscrito a la CAF) y que ha completado el servicio requerido del requisito de presencia física en la sección 5(1)(c); La sección 5 (1.3) proporciona la regla paralela para la clase relacionada y la condición de liberación honorable. Estas disposiciones operan como una excepción dentro del esquema de subvenciones para adultos del artículo 5(1): el artículo 5(1) abre: "El Ministro concederá la ciudadanía a cualquier persona que" cumpla con los criterios enumerados, por lo que la concesión sigue siendo obligatoria ("deberá") una vez que se cumplan los criterios (modificados), con discreción residiendo únicamente en las exenciones del artículo 5(3) y la concesión especial del artículo 5(4). Las equivalencias relacionadas de presencia física de servicio de la Corona/CAF en los artículos 5(1.01)-(1.03) acreditan a un cónyuge o hijo de un miembro de CAF o empleado de servicio público que presta servicios en el extranjero un día por cada día en el extranjero; son distintos de la vía rápida de autoservicio del artículo 5(1.2)/(1.3). El proyecto de ley C-3 (S.C. 2025, c. 5, en vigor el 15 de diciembre de 2025) no modificó el núcleo de subvenciones para adultos del artículo 5(1) ni las disposiciones de vía rápida de la CAF, que son estables a partir del 1 de junio de 2026.

The decision-maker is the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, acting through IRCC officers, under s.5(1) of the Citizenship Act; the statutory designation of the Minister is set at s.2(1). Because s.5(1) is framed as a mandatory grant ('The Minister shall grant citizenship to any person who' meets the criteria), the officer's function is to verify that the applicant meets the modified (service-substituted) eligibility set rather than to exercise discretion over whether to grant. Discretion within s.5 is confined to the s.5(3) compassionate waivers (language, knowledge, and, for minors, presence and oath) and the s.5(4) special grant; neither is the basis of the CAF fast track, which is a statutory exemption from the presence limb. Verification of CAF service and of honourable release is integral to the officer's assessment. The Federal Court is the 'Court' for the Act (s.2(1)) and the venue for judicial review of an unfavourable decision.

There is no statutory administrative appeal of a citizenship-grant refusal; the remedy is judicial review in the Federal Court (the 'Court' as defined in s.2(1) of the Citizenship Act). The presumptive standard of review for an IRCC officer's or the Minister's citizenship decision is reasonableness, established by Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65, [2019] 4 SCR 653, with correctness reserved for limited categories such as constitutional questions and general questions of law of central importance to the legal system. On a CAF fast-track refusal, a reviewing court would assess whether the officer's conclusion (for example, that 1,095 days of qualifying service were not established, or that release was not honourable, or that a s.22 prohibition applied) was justified, transparent, and intelligible on the record. Leave is required to commence judicial review under the Citizenship Act / Federal Courts Act framework. As of 2026-06-01 there is no reported apex decision specific to the s.5(1.2)/(1.3) CAF exemption; Vavilov supplies the governing review standard, not a CAF-specific holding.

A grant of Canadian citizenship through the CAF fast track has the same dual-nationality consequence as any s.5(1) grant: Canada has permitted dual (and multiple) citizenship without restriction since 15 February 1977, the commencement of the Citizenship Act (S.C. 1974-75-76, c. 108), and the current Act contains no provision requiring an applicant to renounce a foreign citizenship on naturalization. A foreign military member attached or seconded to the CAF who is granted citizenship under this route therefore retains their original nationality so far as Canadian law is concerned; whether their country of origin permits the retention of that nationality on acquiring Canadian citizenship is a question of that other country's law and is outside Canadian jurisdiction (no cross-jurisdiction inference is drawn here). Canada imposes no automatic loss of Canadian citizenship on subsequent acquisition of a further foreign nationality; loss occurs only by renunciation (s.9) or revocation for fraud (s.10/10.1). Service members holding multiple nationalities should nonetheless consider any military or security implications under their other state's law.