A post-secondary program that awards an academic degree, diploma or professional certification. This program is often delivered at universities, colleges, seminaries and institutes of technology.

A spouse, common-law partner, dependent child or dependent child of a dependent child (grandchild), who plans to immigrate to Canada with the principal applicant. Accompanying family members are included on the application.

An address is the place where a person is living right now. It can be identified by such things as a street number, street name, apartment number, city, town, province/state and country. For example: A student from Mexico studying in Canada should enter the address where he or she is living in Canada.

The citizenship test will evaluate your knowledge of Canada. During the written exam and the interview, you will be asked questions about 

• history 

• geography

• economy

• government 

• laws 

• symbols

In order to become a Canadian citizen, the Citizenship Act requires new citizens to have an "adequate knowledge" of English or French, Canada’s two official languages. In general, "adequate knowledge" means you can understand someone speaking English or French and they can understand you. (Read a more detailed explanation of "adequate knowledge.") We measure how well you can communicate using the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB)/Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadien (NCLC).

See Inadmissibility.

A process whereby a person becomes a member of another family. This process must create a genuine parent-child relationship that permanently severs the legal ties to the child’s biological parents or guardians.

A document becomes an affidavit when a person signs the document, in the presence of an authorized person, after taking an oath that what the document says is true and accurate.

An affidavit is often used in order to verify that a translation of a document accurately reflects what is stated in the original language of the document.

When referring to the age of a permanent or temporary resident in IRCC’s statistical information:

• for permanent residents, their age at landing and

• for temporary residents, their age at entry or on December 1.

A declaration that a marriage is not valid. Grounds for annulment in Canada include any case when one or both parties were not in a position to legally marry.

A person who submits an application under any of IRCC’s business lines.

You will find this number, also referred to as an Application Number, on any official document issued to you from the visa office where you submitted your application. Your Application Number/Case Number starts with a letter and is followed by a combination of nine (9) numbers or letters. (Example: B000000000 or EP00000000).