Does anyone know if IRCC would call the applicant's past or present employer(s) for verification during Citizenship Application?
I have searched online, and it appeared that IRCC usually only call employers for PR application or LMIA.
I am asking this because my current boss told me someone called her and asked to verify my employment history and status.
I haven't apply for any new jobs recently, but I did apply for citizenship.
It felt strange that my boss would get a call like that.
Not strange. Not usual, but not so unusual as to be uncommon let alone strange.
It is indeed a lot more common for PR or work permit applications where work history is directly relevant. But sure, IRCC can make inquiries to verify any information the applicant has submitted, including telephone calls to employers.
And it could either be the IRCC processing agent handling your application, or the IRCC Citizenship Officer making the decision whether to grant citizenship, or it could be a CBSA officer if IRCC has made an investigatory referral (which would go to the NSSD division of CBSA).
Could actually be a good sign, if this was more or less a spot-check in the process of making the final decision to approve the grant of citizenship.
There is a big, big range in how much information cross-checking and outside source research is done in processing a citizenship application. It can be minimal. It can be checking sources to merely verify an employer or an address actually exist. Screening online open sources appears to be somewhat common, with sites like LinkedIn being among those more often probed for information relevant to the applicant. But it can not only involve making direct inquiries, such as through telephone calls, it can include on-the-ground investigation, even knocking on doors and interviewing people in person, if and when the officials involved see cause to probe that extensively. Seems it rarely gets to that, but again it can, sometimes does.
Overall, telephone inquiries are probably not done for most applicants, but again they are not so unusual as to be uncommon.
NOTE: this is not to say, or even suggest, that what your boss reports was a call about your citizenship application. Who knows. The telephone continues to be a primary scam tool used by many in various ways for all sorts of devious schemes. It's a drag that authorities cannot do more to stem the abuse of telecommunications.
