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Omar Khadr may be one step closer to returning to Canadian soil after the U.S. officially filed a formal request to transfer the convicted war criminal to Canadian custody.

Khadr, 25, has spent the past decade in the U.S. detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba following his arrest as a 15-year-old terror suspect in Afghanistan.

Julie Carmichael, acting spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, said in a statement that Canada was considering the request.

"The Government of Canada has just received a completed application for the transfer of prisoner Omar Ahmed Khadr," the statement said.

"A decision will be made on this file in accordance with Canadian law."

A source told Â鶹ӰÊÓ the U.S. has essentially asked Canada for a diplomatic favour in relation to Khadr's case, and Canada has "agreed to look at a request of this nature favourably."

The Canadian Press reported that the U.S. is "bending over backwards" to ensure that Canada takes Khadr back.

At the end of March, reports emerged that U.S. Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was signing off on a deal to relocate Khadr and hoped to have him back in Canada by the end of May, if sensitive diplomatic issues could be resolved between Washington and Ottawa.

Khadr pleaded guilty in 2010 to five war crimes charges stemming from incidents that occurred in Afghanistan a decade ago. Under the terms of a plea deal he received an eight-year sentence but was eligible to return to Canada last October to serve out the rest of his sentence.

However, Ottawa has so far dragged its feet on approving Khadr's repatriation.

"The fact of the matter is that if we don't look at bringing Khadr back now, in eight years he would be able to walk onto Canadian streets a free man," the source told Â鶹ӰÊÓ.

Khadr's supporters have long maintained that he was only a child soldier at the time he was captured, brainwashed by his extremist father, and should never have been on trial.

But it's believed that getting Khadr back onto Canadian soil would allow officials in Ottawa to control the conditions of his release.

If Khadr served his entire sentence in the U.S., he would technically be a free man upon his release and would be allowed to walk the streets freely.

Under the current sentence in Canada, Khadr would be eligible for parole. Some sources have told CP that it could be as early as next month.

Khadr's late father, Ahmed Said Khadr, was a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle, and was accused of being an al Qaeda financier.

The Khadr family maintains a home in Toronto, but family members have refused to comment on recent legal developments.

Andrea Prasow, an analyst from Human Rights Watch who has followed the case closely, said Khadr could be eligible for parole in about 18 months.

Prasow said the initial plan was always to get Khadr back to Canada, and with Washington eager to finally shutter Guantanamo Bay, the return could be imminent.

"What we're looking at is Omar Khadr finally going home and being released sometime soon, the way he should have been nearly a decade ago," she told CTV's Power Play Wednesday.

Libby Davies, the NDP's Deputy Leader, said the government should act "expeditiously" to ensure that Khadr can come back to Canada.

"He is a Canadian citizen, he does have a right to come back to Canada," she said.

But Davies pondered whether the Conservative government would again throw up some kind of road block to keep Khadr out.

"They seem to be reluctant to deal with this," she said.

Deepak Obhrai, parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, said Khadr's application must follow legal procedure.

"We've got to follow the system, we have got to follow the law," he said.

"Let's not forget the fact that someone's life has been lost because of Mr. Khadr, of which he has admitted now that he did it. Somebody has died."