Applying to Canada from Eritrea

Applicants in Eritrea often lose time on the same documents: police certificates, education assessments, and scans that are too large to upload. Use the notes below as a preparation list, then match each item to the list inside your IRCC account. This page is not official IRCC guidance for one country, and it does not add a document your program does not ask for. Keep each file under 4 MB and as a single file per slot. If a scan is too large or split across photos, compress or merge it before you upload. Confirm the current list on canada.ca, because requirements change by program and by the date you apply.

Highest-value programs

Family class sponsorship, refugee-related pathways.

Documents worth extra attention

• Where an official document genuinely can't be obtained, IRCC generally allows a written explanation or affidavit in its place, but this needs its own supporting evidence, not just a statement on its own.
• Family sponsorship files tend to be large and multi-document, merging and page-numbering the full package makes it far easier for an officer to navigate.
• Documents in Arabic or Tigrinya generally need a certified English or French translation attached alongside the original.
• Compress large scanned bundles before uploading, family documents digitized from paper archives often come back oversized.

This guide is in English. Applicants from Eritrea often search in Arabic, Tigrinya, full-language versions are planned for a later phase.