August 1st 2014 - Date for implementing Citizenship Law

[mikasingh]

Hello Everyone,

I went to my attorneys office today and she mentioned that on some website the new date of implementation has been updated to reflect August 1, 2014. That would be today. I checked CIC website and did not notice any changes. I know some people on the forum have talked about June 2015 as the date but wanted to check in to see if anyone has heard anything about August 1 as new date ?

 

[screech339]

Hello Everyone,

I went to my attorneys office today and she mentioned that on some website the new date of implementation has been updated to reflect August 1, 2014. That would be today. I checked CIC website and did not notice any changes. I know some people on the forum have talked about June 2015 as the date but wanted to check in to see if anyone has heard anything about August 1 as new date ?

The August 1st today's change is only for the new cutoff dependent age of 19 and over. Dependents can no longer be be sponsored for PR if they are 19 years or older.

The June 2015 or possible July 1st 2015 date are supposedly meant for the new citizenship law of 4 out of 6 year residency qualification requirement for Canadian citizenship.

Screech339

 

[mikasingh]

Hey Screech....thx for the a prompt response.....keeping my fingers crossed on this one

 

[pedros]

The new decision making process came into force today:

http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=872659

 

[screech339]

The new decision making process came into force today:

http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=872659

The change of the citizenship law that does into effect today still haven't affected the 4 out of 6 year rule yet. The 3 out of 4 year is still in effect. As mentioned in the link, the change is only done to the administrative side of the citizenship processing.

 

[raymasa]

The new decision making process came into force today:

http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=872659

Thanks for the link Pedros. Hopefully, this will get all the applications moving faster

Ray

 

[informatics]

The change of the citizenship law that does into effect today still haven't affected the 4 out of 6 year rule yet. The 3 out of 4 year is still in effect. As mentioned in the link, the change is only done to the administrative side of the citizenship processing.

Guys I believe this change in decision making model is going to improve the processing times to a huge extent. Previously due to fewer number of citizenship judges , backlog continued to grow . For example Calgary has just two citizenship judges so the processing times is usually more than 2 years , however GTA has around 7 judges so (some) people , are getting processed in like 7 months or so .

So , I am very hopeful that we will see a significant improvement in processing times even before the implementation of residency clause.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

http://news.gc.ca/web/article-en.do?nid=872659

New decision-making model

Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has significantly improved its ability to process applications by increasing its decision making capacity from approximately 30 citizenship judges to more than 450 decision makers.
Under the new decision-making model - a one-step process as opposed to the former three-step one - citizenship officers now decide all aspects of most citizenship applications. Under the old model, obtaining citizenship involved too much duplication of work. Citizenship officers reviewed the files and prepared them for a citizenship judge, who approved or rejected the application, returned it to the officer, who then granted citizenship on behalf of the Minister or recommended an appeal of the judge’s decision.

On a transitional basis, cases where the officer believes the applicant does not meet the residence requirement will be referred to citizenship judges for decision. Citizenship judges will also remain responsible for the important role of presiding over citizenship ceremonies and administering the oath of citizenship, which is the final step before citizenship is granted.

 

[Ronaldo Da Lima 89]

That is much easier and faster for all applicants. However, it really depends on the decision makers (I think most of them are previous CIC call center agents) because some of them are really smart and knowledgable, and some of them have no clue about CIC laws

 

[joe_fun]

What happens if you just took the test? will the file go through old system or now the CJ only? or is this new administrative decision apply only to ones who haven't taken a test yet?

 

[mikasingh]

On the CIC Website still seeing 1095 day requirement .......hoping they don't change this until June 2015

 

[raymasa]

What happens if you just took the test? will the file go through old system or now the CJ only? or is this new administrative decision apply only to ones who haven't taken a test yet?

I remember when they changed the rules for the PR, they were running both system simultaneously. The new applications were under the new rules and moving faster, but the old application were being processed under the old rules and the processing slowed down even more, because significant resources were moved to processing the new applications, so the government can claim that they made the processing faster.

If that happens again, that does concern me, as then we will be back to the slow line...

Ray

 

[ottawaResident]

I remember when they changed the rules for the PR, they were running both system simultaneously. The new applications were under the new rules and moving faster, but the old application were being processed under the old rules and the processing slowed down even more, because significant resources were moved to processing the new applications, so the government can claim that they made the processing faster.

If that happens again, that does concern me, as then we will be back to the slow line...

Ray

I'm sorry to say that I was part of that new program, where they moved my file to the Ottawa Pilot Program from Buffalo. I remember folks who applied before me, got their PR, 9-10 months after I did. :-[

 

[joe_fun]

there is a chance that recent test takers will be processed under new rules since if lets say you just took the test your file is still collecting the dust and hasn't moved to the next step, so why would they send it to a judge they might as well have the CJ make the decision?? so in this instance, too many applications waiting for decision/oath and slow processing might actually help "OPTIMISM"

 

[Maly]

About 4 months after I came to Canada to stay, I went to cancel my employment visa in UAE. I actually went there for a social event but took the opportunity to cancel the visa. In the Residence Calculator I just mentioned that I went for Family Visit. The visa cancellation doesn't mention the cancellation date. Do you think I should have mentioned that I canceled employment visa that time? I was actually in Canada and not working for my employer at that point. Any thoughts?