Release of digital Canadian citizenship certificate

The Government of Canada will start implementing the digital version of the Canadian Citizenship Certificate starting June 27, 2022.

The e-certificate is a valid proof of Canadian citizenship. If you have participated in the pilot project and have received an e-certificate, you can

download, save and print the e-certificate
use it to access services and benefits the same as you would a paper certificate

Validations

At this moment, this digital document is only able to be validated against federal government programs. E.g. Canadian passport application, EI, pension, SIN.

There is no news release on how this digital document validation portal will be shared by other provincial or municipal level governments. Document holders are still being asked to print the digital document themselves when they request for federal government service.

Electronic citizenship certificates (e-certificates)

The new e-certificate is an electronic version of the current paper citizenship certificate. The pilot project is undergoing and they are selecting some applicants who have already submitted an application to:

Features of the e-certificates

The e-certificate has

the certificate number (starts with “X”)
your family name and given name(s)
your date of birth
your gender (male, female or another gender)
the effective date of citizenship

Example of the digital citizenship certificate

Canadian Citizenship Card

On February 2012, the Government of Canada stopped issuing the plastic card version of the citizenship certificate. However,

The cards are still valid as proof of Canadian citizenship.
The date on your citizenship card is not the date you became a Canadian citizen (it’s the date we produced the card).
To update or replace your citizenship card, apply for a citizenship certificate.

Note: The government asks all citizenship cardholders not to re-laminate the card. Doing so, it will void the card’s validity.