Question about 2 pieces of IDs for kids

I am applying for citizenship for my kids (10 & 6), and have a question about 2 pieces of ID for them.

According to the guide, both should have the birth date & name and at least one should have the photo on it.

For the one that requires birth date & name, I can use the health card (which doesn't have the photo on it). For the one that requires photo, I really don't know what to use other than PR card or passport (which have also been included as requirements for other sections).

I called CIC and inquired and the agent told me not to include anything that have been included in the other sections. But other than PR card and passport, there is nothing else that contains name, date of birth and photo on it.

What do people think about this ? I guess this should be a common case of many people here.

Thanks a lot for your information.

Forms of identification
I notice that the guide says

For a child under school age, identification such as: -- a passport page containing his or her photo and personal details

The implication, which it appears the CIC call centre rep confirmed, is that for school age children, identification other than the passport must be included.

Frankly this does not make sense, given that for an adult, the guide states that examples of identification which may be provided include the passport; in particular, it states:

5. Two (2) pieces of personal identification Both pieces of identification should show your name and date of birth, one of which must have your photo on it. Examples include: • a Canadian driver’s licence • a Canadian health insurance card • a copy of your passport page containing your photo and personal details, etc.

This makes it clear that for an adult, the applicant can use the passport as one of the forms of identification to be included.   

You can try telephoning the call centre again and asking another representative. You might try asking the question in terms of "what do we do for identification for a school age child if the only identification with a photo is the child's passport and PR card?"

Personally, my guess is that using the passport is OK and will suffice, but obviously there is a risk that the application could be returned as incomplete, and obviously you want something more definitive to go on.

I would probably go so far as to include two copies of the relevant passport pages, putting one with other identification and labeling it as identification, and I might include a statement: passport and PR card are the child's only forms of identification bearing a photo.

Technically this should suffice. The purpose of identification is mostly just that: to clearly, definitively establish the identity of the person applying for citizenship, and of course the requirement of a photo is for purposes of cross-comparing it with the photos submitted and the photo on the PR card. If the application package contains the PR card, the passport, and another form of identification, along with the photos submitted, this should establish the applicant's identity and thus meet the requirements of the Citizenship Act.

Good luck and please keep us posted if you learn more, and about how this goes. I am sure you are not the only parent running into this issue. (Although, I thought the health card for most provinces now do include a photo.)



By the way, I believe applicants can return an application to CIC that CIC has said is incomplete and insist that the application be processed as is. While this would almost always be a bad decision, in some cases it may be necessary to get past some formal checklist screening that should not apply to the particular application -- this would be a rare situation, but there are such exceptions; this is one reason why I am skeptical about the trend toward requiring only online applications (not applicable to citizenship yet or in foreseeable future, thankfully), since such screening is done electronically and there is no way to push past it, the software simply blocking the submission of the application.

I did not see the post by cool_alex before I posted. It comports with what I think. It is what makes sense as well (although I would include the health card as the second form of identification rather than rely on both the passport and PR card).

I was in same situation, but when you call CIC they will guide you what to add and what not.

I also did the same thing like Saara, You can add kids school record as photo id, you have to tell the school that you want school record with your kids photo on it & they will manage it for you.