Who qualifies for a waiver of the Canadian citizenship test or oath?
A waiver fully exempts you from a citizenship requirement. IRCC approves test and language waivers on compassionate grounds, and waives the oath only when a mental disability prevents an applicant from understanding what taking it means. Many people need no waiver at all: applicants under 18 or 55 and older are already exempt from the test and language requirements.
Check your age group before anything else. If you are under 18 or at least 55 years old on the day you sign your application, the test and language requirements simply do not apply to you, and there is nothing to request. Children under 14 also do not take the oath of citizenship.
For everyone else, waivers are granted on compassionate grounds, with separate criteria for adults (18 and over) and for minors aged 14 to 17. Your request explains the situation that prevents you from meeting the requirement, and IRCC reviews it against those criteria.
The oath has a narrower rule: IRCC only waives it when a mental disability, such as an intellectual or developmental disability, prevents the applicant from understanding the significance of taking it, for example not understanding that the oath makes them a Canadian citizen.
Time and cost on their own are generally not valid reasons: the time needed to study for the test, or the cost of a third-party language test, will not usually get a waiver. But if a personal or financial hardship is behind the time or cost problem, you can still make the request and IRCC will review it.
If a waiver is approved, you skip the requirement entirely. If what you need is help meeting the requirement rather than an exemption from it, request an accommodation instead; we cover those in a separate guide.
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