IMMIGRATION HUB
On June 19, 2014 the provisions to change the Canadian Citizenship Act under Bill C-24 -Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, became law after receiving Royal Assent. The law aims to strengthen Canadian citizenship and speed up application processing time to less than a year and reduce 80% of the existing backlog.
These provisions will also impede individuals becoming Canadian citizens of convenience or those who do not have any economic participation and ties to Canada, only returning to Canada to avail of taxpayer-funded benefits.
First Reforms Enforced – June 19, 2014
Immediately in effect were the fast track citizenship for members of the Canadian Armed Forces; improved clarity on the citizenship of the First Generation Limit for individuals born outside of Canada; enabling children born outside of Canada to serving Crown servants to pass on citizenship to their children or adopted abroad; and streamlined decision making for issuing Discretionary Grants under section (5)(4).
Second Reforms Enforced – August 1, 2014
A second suite of reforms took effect, including a new decision-making model, eliminating duplication of work between citizenship officers and citizenship judges, making it a one-step process. Citizenship officers decide on the application versus the previous three-step process of reviewing by the officer, deciding by the judge and granting or recommending an appeal by the officer. Improved processing competence will be by increasing the current 30 decision makers to 450.
Stronger authority is given to Citizenship and Immigration Canada to determine a complete application and return incomplete applications to focus resources on only completed applications.
Citizenship officers now have authority to decide on certain cases and these decisions can be subject to leave at the Federal Court, which can then be appealed to the Federal Court of Appeal, and further appealed in higher court, the Supreme Court of Canada with leave, versus the previous decisions from citizenship judges which would only go as high as the Federal Court level.
Absolute authority to declare an abandonment of an application at any stage that an applicant fails to comply with a request for information, attend an interview, and appear for citizenship test or an appointment with an officer.
Final Reforms Enforced – June 11, 2015
To ensure strong connection to Canada, adult applicants must physically reside in Canada for a minimum of 1,460 days (four years) in the six years before the date of their application, and they must be physically present in Canada for a minimum of 183 days in each of four calendar years within the qualifying period.
To ensure adaptability to basic Canadian life, applicants 14 to 64 years old must meet basic knowledge and language requirements.
Citizenship is automatically extended to “Lost Canadians” who were born before 1947, and did not become citizens on January 1, 1947 when the first Canadian Citizenship Act came into effect, including their children born in the first generation outside Canada.
Adult applicants must declare their intent to reside in Canada upon obtaining citizenship and comply with personal income tax obligations in order to be eligible for citizenship.
Tougher penalties for fraud and misrepresentation are a maximum fine of $100,000 and/or up to five years in prison.
The Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council (ICCRC) is the new regulatory body for citizenship consultants. Only members of the ICCRC, lawyers or notaries (including paralegals and students at law) can be paid to provide citizenship applicants with representation or advice.
New application forms are now on the CIC website. Applications using the old forms received after June 10, 2015 will be returned.
Reference: cic.gc.ca
