FlyerTalk Forums - Which is faster - getting Canadian passport vs renewing US 10 yr tourist visa?

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Which is faster - getting Canadian passport vs renewing US 10 yr tourist visa?

My mother-in-law wants to go with us to a relative's wedding in California - plans to travel last week of August..

She has a 10 yr US multientry tourist visa which will expire next month.

She is now eligible to apply for Canadian citizenship - she has had PR status for about 10 yrs.

The question - which process is faster? If she applies in the next week or 2 for one status - which one should she apply to maximize the chance to get the status, so she can visit the US in the fourth week of August.

If she hasn't even started applying for Canadian citizenship, there is no way she will hold a Canadian passport in hand by the last week of August. Even in clear cases, the process with its various steps simply takes too long.

So visa renewal it is.

And apply for citizenship in parallel.

The current timetable for Citizenship is 12 months. If you live in say... Moncton and are lucky (unique name, no travel, good agent etc) you could get it by end of August.

If you live in Ontario (especially Brampton) you could be waiting August 2020.

I applied January and it’s not even “in progress” yet. I’m not in Brampton, but that seems to be one of the slowest locations for whatever reason.

Make sure her PR card is valid. Though indications are renewals there no longer take 3-4 months.

I have just found out that her PR card maybe expiring in the next month or two.

How long does it take for renewal.

We live in Ottawa - I guess citizenship applications take as long to process in Ottawa as in Brampton?

I wonder if her tourist visa application processing time -it is a function of where we live - again, with us in Ottawa, and the US embassy there....

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyerGoldII (Post 30966608)

How long does it take for renewal.

You can find that out by reading up on the Citizenship & Immigration Canada website. @:-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyerGoldII (Post 30966608)

Quote:

Originally Posted by airoli (Post 30966700)

You can find that out by reading up on the Citizenship & Immigration Canada website. @:-)

Yeah it’s pretty easy to google but that’s what CIC list vs reality ;) They list it as down (time wise) at the moment, 24 days yesterday, colleague said it was 27 recently. It’s become far faster of late which is key given how critical it now is for travel. Used to be 90-120 days. And you need to do the paperwork first which includes all travel for 5 years. I had to delay a landing because the times were so long.

Not sure on Ottawa. But probably! Basically you don’t want to be in ON or BC but no guarantees you won’t get unlikely elsewhere and CIC from what I hear refuses to discuss a delay until 12 months and then switches to “oh it’ll be soon” from 12 months on. Some people wait years.

I think there are probably two questions here - how to travel to the US, and how to come back to Canada.

To come back to Canada you will need to renew the PR card - it is the quickest option and under a month processing time.

I have no idea about travelling to the US - I think that would be subject to whatever rules apply to her passport (when I was PR on a British passport, I had to get an ESTA, for example).