Criminal Records
What if a landed immigrant breaks the law? This can be a problem for getting Canadian citizenship. The police check all citizenship applications for criminal records.
To become a citizen, a landed immigrant must have lived in Canada for three of the past four years. Time in jail doesn’t count. You can’t become a citizen when you are in jail, or on parole (let out of prison early).
Sometimes people with criminal records can’t become citizens and they have to leave Canada. Sometimes people lie about a criminal record to become citizens. Later the government may find out the truth and take away their citizenship.