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Test/decision/oath on the same day?

meiko3886

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Hello all!
I just received a letter with my interview/test day (24th of March). Currently, I am living in UK so I will have to take a flight to Vancouver. The oath ceremony is usually scheduled one month after the interview. That means I will have to go back to UK and then fly back to Canada again and then back to UK :/ I am planning to move back to Canada few months later. So my question is.. is it possible to ask CIC to schedule my interview and oath on the same date? Or to have the oath on the next day? I know it is a lot to ask but I've seen this kind of cases on our spreadsheets. It would save me a lot of money and stress. Anyone can help please?
 

jc94

Hero Member
Mar 14, 2016
830
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Hello all!
I just received a letter with my interview/test day (24th of March). Currently, I am living in UK so I will have to take a flight to Vancouver. The oath ceremony is usually scheduled one month after the interview. That means I will have to go back to UK and then fly back to Canada again and then back to UK :/ I am planning to move back to Canada few months later. So my question is.. is it possible to ask CIC to schedule my interview and oath on the same date? Or to have the oath on the next day? I know it is a lot to ask but I've seen this kind of cases on our spreadsheets. It would save me a lot of money and stress. Anyone can help please?
First off, let's be clear it's not usually one month after the interview, it's "within 3 months" (normally). Many many people wait 2-3 months (or more), a few wait one (or less) I'm sure but it does depend upon the office and other factors. Some people get next day, normally offered AT the interview. So I'd definitely not book your flight back to the UK the next day.

You can ask but at < 4 weeks out I doubt they'd do this to be honest. And you obviously can't ask before as you just got the test date. In fact getting a months notice is good - I got under two weeks for test.

Also, while there is no requirement to prove you are living/planning to live in Canada any more I'm not sure IRCC would consider your request that favourably based on it being because you aren't living in the country you are applying for Citizenship in.

Remember that once you become a citizen you can't return to Canada without a Canadian passport (unless you fly to US and cross on foot and even then CBSA may be unhappy with you but have to let you in; or apply for a temporary one, or etc... none of which are cheap/easy). Something to bear in mind whenever you take your oath. Urgent passports are possible but you'll pay $50/$110/$498 more depending upon when and how quickly you want it. Plus $160 for a 10 year passport, plus photos.
 
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ajohal3

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They can refuse your citizenship application if they come to know that you do not live in Canada. This is one of the conditions that you have to meet. Visiting UK is different than living in the UK. You have to be resident of Canada for the full time while you have applied for Citizenship although you can visit any country.
 

Lex2019

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Jan 21, 2019
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They can refuse your citizenship application if they come to know that you do not live in Canada. This is one of the conditions that you have to meet. Visiting UK is different than living in the UK. You have to be resident of Canada for the full time while you have applied for Citizenship although you can visit any country.
Not true. Regardless of where one lives they remain residents (even if they are not considered residents for tax purposes). Thousands of people leave the country for their own reasons while waiting. Point me to ONE person that you personally know (not from the scary stories that you read on the web) who has been denied citizenship on the grounds indicated above. I haven't seen one.
 

meiko3886

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I've been living in Canada for 6 years and my family situation is forcing me to stay in UK for few months and soon I will be coming back anyway. I met the requirements for citizenship and I was approved. I was just wondering if there is any urgent process that would help to get it all done during one visit, as I saw it happening on our spreadsheet.
Besides, I believe I can enter Canada even without Canadian passport if I am in possession of another passport that allows me to do so.
 

Lex2019

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Jan 21, 2019
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I've been living in Canada for 6 years and my family situation is forcing me to stay in UK for few months and soon I will be coming back anyway. I met the requirements for citizenship and I was approved. I was just wondering if there is any urgent process that would help to get it all done during one visit, as I saw it happening on our spreadsheet.
Besides, I believe I can enter Canada even without Canadian passport if I am in possession of another passport that allows me to do so.
Check on the last statement. Once you've been granted Canadian citizenship you will have to use your new Canadian passport when entering the country by air. Alternatively you could drive in from Buffalo or the closest land border point with the US.
 

Seym

Champion Member
Nov 6, 2017
1,457
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To go back to original question : people can get the interview and oath at the same day, but this happens if IRCC decides it when it sends the invitation, not at the applicant's request. It's quite common for applicants living far away (in Canada!) from any IRCC office.

Not OP's case, since he only received a single invitation, like 99.9% of applicants.
 

dpenabill

VIP Member
Apr 2, 2010
6,252
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. . . is it possible to ask CIC to schedule my interview and oath on the same date? Or to have the oath on the next day?
I was just wondering if there is any urgent process that would help to get it all done during one visit, as I saw it happening on our spreadsheet.
The response by @jc94 covers it very well.

IRCC does sometimes schedule oaths for the same day or within a week. This is unusual however. Sometimes it is under special circumstances, attendant special events. Most occasions appear to be attendant itinerant services (such as it was for me . . . our "local office" being more than a thousand km away, two or three times a year IRCC comes here to administer interviews, tests, and oath ceremonies at an actually LOCAL location). And there have been a few times historically when this was done attendant a concerted effort to reduce the backlog of pending cases. I know of NO instance in which this was done by request.

While technically one can "ask" just about anything, there is no hint at all that IRCC schedules oath ceremonies by request. They will postpone or reschedule oath ceremonies, to some later date, but NOT a particular date at the applicant/candidate's request.

Which leads to a caution that there is a fair risk that just asking can invite IRCC officials to entertain questions or concerns which could trigger non-routine processing, including potential delays. Even though there is NO requirement to remain IN Canada, or a resident of Canada, while a citizenship application is pending, the fact that an applicant is living abroad naturally invites some questions about the nature and extent of the applicant's ties to Canada, which is relevant to assessing the truthfulness and accuracy of the applicant's account of actual presence in Canada. (The importance of residence-related ties in Canada is illustrated by the required employment history alone . . . employment history has NO direct connection to any of the requirements for a grant of citizenship, but it is considered so important that any gap in the applicant's work/activity history will render an application incomplete.)

In particular, contrary to what @ajohal3 asserted, there is NO requirement to be in Canada or even a resident of Canada while a citizenship application is pending.

But contrary to what @Lex2019 asserted, a Canadian (PR or citizen) does not continue to be a resident of Canada if the Canadian (again, either a Canadian PR or Canadian citizen) is living abroad. They continue to have Permanent Resident status even if they are not a resident in Canada, but that does not make them a resident of Canada.

More significantly, historically scores of applicants have encountered non-routine processing triggered by indications they were living abroad, or otherwise abroad for extended periods of time, after applying . . . especially in cases where it appears the applicant only returns to Canada to attend the test or oath. And contrary to what @Lex2019 suggests, yes, applicants living abroad who were qualified when they applied for citizenship, and some who were approved and even scheduled to take the oath, have not only been denied citizenship but lost their PR status if they continued to remain abroad for a period of time leading to a breach of the RO. There are official Federal Court decisions affirming such decisions (including accounts of individuals scheduled for the oath who were issued 44(1) Reports upon their arrival at a PoE when coming to Canada to attend their oath, who then were not allowed to take the oath but rather were faced with proceedings to terminate their PR status altogether).

The latter are largely dated. Faster processing timelines in recent years have dramatically reduced the risk that an applicant living abroad will fall short of complying with the PR RO prior to taking the oath.

Not all applicants living abroad while the application is pending will encounter the same difficulties. Even when many of those perceived to be abroad while the application was pending were being issued full-blown RQ, and in many instances it appeared CIC was deliberately delaying processing the application (never confirmed, but it seemed like this was a deliberate tactic to delay the process so long some applicants would fail to stay in compliance with the RO, justifying a denial of the application), back in the 2010 to 2015 time period, many were not subjected to this despite being abroad. Among those abroad for more or less obvious temporary purposes, for example, many reported sailing through the process much like other routinely processed applicants. As long as they could indeed be sure to get their notices in time to meet scheduled events (test and oath).


Besides, I believe I can enter Canada even without Canadian passport if I am in possession of another passport that allows me to do so.
The distinction is about documents necessary to ENTER Canada versus what is needed to board a flight coming to Canada.

No Canadian passport necessary to ENTER Canada. A Canadian passport is NECESSARY to board a flight coming to Canada.

In particular . . . Canadian citizens have a Charter Right to enter Canada. Proof of identity will ordinarily be sufficient for a Canadian citizen to be allowed ENTRY into Canada. Been there, done that, forgot my Canadian passport during a trip to the U.S. once, no problem at the PoE (what I actually did was take my wife's Canadian passport, thinking it was mine, and I presented that to the officer at the PIL when I was coming into Canada, and we do not have the same last names, so it was a bit awkward but the officer obviously understood the mix-up and was very friendly, no admonishments or referral to Secondary, just the usual 'have a nice day'). I have not heard of anyone being admonished about not having their Canadian passport at a PoE . . . in contrast, lots of tales about rather harsh admonitions, even threats, from U.S. border officials for U.S. citizens not presenting their U.S. passports. Also been there, done that.

BUT a Canadian citizen does need to present a Canadian passport in order to board a flight to Canada. (Unless the Canadian citizen is also a U.S. citizen and is presenting a U.S. passport . . . rather telling, illustrating the influence of those damn Americans, that they actually have more rights than other Canadians in this regard.)
 
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meiko3886

Star Member
Jan 29, 2014
102
5
Category........
Visa Office......
Warsaw
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
10-03-2014
AOR Received.
01-04-2014
Med's Done....
09-02-2014
Passport Req..
11-06-2014
VISA ISSUED...
22-07-2014
Thank you all for replies.
I didn't know I must to use a Canadian passport when I'll be a citizen. I read the rules changed in November 2016, seems I missed that. I was using my Polish passport while being Canadian PR. I guess I will have to get one in the embassy if it will happen I will be in UK at the time.

Also please check: https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=911&top=5 It says I can leave Canada after sending the application, as long as I will not lose my status during that time.

I can sense some people got bad feelings against me because I don't live in Canada at the moment. Tho it is not because I want to abuse the system. What happened was.. I was in 8 years long relationship with a Canadian guy. We applied together as common law to obtain my PR. I left whole of my life for him. A few years after I became PR, I found out he was having another relationship on the side, hiding it for 3 months. When I confronted him, he didn't want to fix the relationship anymore and he bought plane ticket for me and basically sent me back home. I had no place to stay because the apartment where we were living was owned by his mom. He took all my personal belongings (clothes, books, etc).. It took me a very long time to get it back because the police refused to help me out. At that time I was working on weekends and attending full time college, which suddenly got closed down because it lost accreditation. I had to fight for a whole year to get my 10k cad back... It took me some time to deal with my demons and depression after all of this happened.. I rebuild my life, became more independent. Soon I will marry my best friend, whom I took to Canada for a year under the International Experience Canada program. He fell in love with Canada too and agreed to settle down in BC with me. We will get married while we are in UK because it will be a trouble to organize the wedding so far away from home. Also I need to wait 5 years to become a sponsor for common-law relationship since I was sponsored before (the time passes around this time). As I read on the official website, as a Canadian citizen I can sponsor while being in other country.
I could write so much more, but I hope you got my point. I love Canada and I was forced to leave by my ex-partner. Someone will say I could have rented a room and work? Sure I could have. But I decided to focus on my mental health and get support from my family.
 

treasuredone

Full Member
Feb 25, 2016
25
4
The response by @jc94 covers it very well.

IRCC does sometimes schedule oaths for the same day or within a week. This is unusual however. Sometimes it is under special circumstances, attendant special events. Most occasions appear to be attendant itinerant services (such as it was for me . . . our "local office" being more than a thousand km away, two or three times a year IRCC comes here to administer interviews, tests, and oath ceremonies at an actually LOCAL location). And there have been a few times historically when this was done attendant a concerted effort to reduce the backlog of pending cases. I know of NO instance in which this was done by request.

While technically one can "ask" just about anything, there is no hint at all that IRCC schedules oath ceremonies by request. They will postpone or reschedule oath ceremonies, to some later date, but NOT a particular date at the applicant/candidate's request.

Which leads to a caution that there is a fair risk that just asking can invite IRCC officials to entertain questions or concerns which could trigger non-routine processing, including potential delays. Even though there is NO requirement to remain IN Canada, or a resident of Canada, while a citizenship application is pending, the fact that an applicant is living abroad naturally invites some questions about the nature and extent of the applicant's ties to Canada, which is relevant to assessing the truthfulness and accuracy of the applicant's account of actual presence in Canada. (The importance of residence-related ties in Canada is illustrated by the required employment history alone . . . employment history has NO direct connection to any of the requirements for a grant of citizenship, but it is considered so important that any gap in the applicant's work/activity history will render an application incomplete.)

In particular, contrary to what @ajohal3 asserted, there is NO requirement to be in Canada or even a resident of Canada while a citizenship application is pending.

But contrary to what @Lex2019 asserted, a Canadian (PR or citizen) does not continue to be a resident of Canada if the Canadian (again, either a Canadian PR or Canadian citizen) is living abroad. They continue to have Permanent Resident status even if they are not a resident in Canada, but that does not make them a resident of Canada.

More significantly, historically scores of applicants have encountered non-routine processing triggered by indications they were living abroad, or otherwise abroad for extended periods of time, after applying . . . especially in cases where it appears the applicant only returns to Canada to attend the test or oath. And contrary to what @Lex2019 suggests, yes, applicants living abroad who were qualified when they applied for citizenship, and some who were approved and even scheduled to take the oath, have not only been denied citizenship but lost their PR status if they continued to remain abroad for a period of time leading to a breach of the RO. There are official Federal Court decisions affirming such decisions (including accounts of individuals scheduled for the oath who were issued 44(1) Reports upon their arrival at a PoE when coming to Canada to attend their oath, who then were not allowed to take the oath but rather were faced with proceedings to terminate their PR status altogether).

The latter are largely dated. Faster processing timelines in recent years have dramatically reduced the risk that an applicant living abroad will fall short of complying with the PR RO prior to taking the oath.

Not all applicants living abroad while the application is pending will encounter the same difficulties. Even when many of those perceived to be abroad while the application was pending were being issued full-blown RQ, and in many instances it appeared CIC was deliberately delaying processing the application (never confirmed, but it seemed like this was a deliberate tactic to delay the process so long some applicants would fail to stay in compliance with the RO, justifying a denial of the application), back in the 2010 to 2015 time period, many were not subjected to this despite being abroad. Among those abroad for more or less obvious temporary purposes, for example, many reported sailing through the process much like other routinely processed applicants. As long as they could indeed be sure to get their notices in time to meet scheduled events (test and oath).




The distinction is about documents necessary to ENTER Canada versus what is needed to board a flight coming to Canada.

No Canadian passport necessary to ENTER Canada. A Canadian passport is NECESSARY to board a flight coming to Canada.

In particular . . . Canadian citizens have a Charter Right to enter Canada. Proof of identity will ordinarily be sufficient for a Canadian citizen to be allowed ENTRY into Canada. Been there, done that, forgot my Canadian passport during a trip to the U.S. once, no problem at the PoE (what I actually did was take my wife's Canadian passport, thinking it was mine, and I presented that to the officer at the PIL when I was coming into Canada, and we do not have the same last names, so it was a bit awkward but the officer obviously understood the mix-up and was very friendly, no admonishments or referral to Secondary, just the usual 'have a nice day'). I have not heard of anyone being admonished about not having their Canadian passport at a PoE . . . in contrast, lots of tales about rather harsh admonitions, even threats, from U.S. border officials for U.S. citizens not presenting their U.S. passports. Also been there, done that.

BUT a Canadian citizen does need to present a Canadian passport in order to board a flight to Canada. (Unless the Canadian citizen is also a U.S. citizen and is presenting a U.S. passport . . . rather telling, illustrating the influence of those damn Americans, that they actually have more rights than other Canadians in this regard.)
As for the quote in bold fonts, what do you think of the story in the link below where a dual British-Canadian citizen was denied boarding to Canada because he was without a Canadian passport?

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/canadian-told-he-can-t-board-flight-home-from-jamaica-because-of-rule-he-didn-t-know-existed-1.4822598
 

dpenabill

VIP Member
Apr 2, 2010
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BUT a Canadian citizen does need to present a Canadian passport in order to board a flight to Canada. (Unless the Canadian citizen is also a U.S. citizen and is presenting a U.S. passport . . .
As for the quote in bold fonts, what do you think of the story in the link below where a dual British-Canadian citizen was denied boarding to Canada because he was without a Canadian passport?

https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/canadian-told-he-can-t-board-flight-home-from-jamaica-because-of-rule-he-didn-t-know-existed-1.4822598
Note sure what you are asking. The story precisely illustrates what is quoted. This has been the rule for a few years now.

As I said in that post:
The distinction is about documents necessary to ENTER Canada versus what is needed to board a flight coming to Canada.​
No Canadian passport necessary to ENTER Canada. A Canadian passport is NECESSARY to board a flight coming to Canada.​
 
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dpenabill

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I can sense some people got bad feelings against me because I don't live in Canada at the moment.
Likely to be some of that in the forum, but to be clear that had NO influence in what I posted or in what follows here.

There are real risks for applicants who move abroad while the application is pending. These days those risks appear to be significantly less than they were in the past. These days the risks are mostly logistical, like the difficulty and expense of making the trip to attend the test and the oath on short notice.

You have already moved abroad while the application is pending. Many do. MOST probably do NOT encounter problems because of this. Some will encounter problems. At this stage all you can do is to be prepared to handle the risks and navigate the process accordingly. Odds are GOOD things will go well . . . or, things are likely to go well as long as you get timely notice and can travel in time to meet scheduled events. It may help, nonetheless, to be cognizant of what risks there are and to be prepared to handle various contingencies in how things go.

Leading to . . .

It says I can leave Canada after sending the application, as long as I will not lose my status during that time.
Some may equate traveling abroad with moving abroad to live. Failing to recognize the difference tends to be rooted in willful blindness.

To be clear, there are more "as long as" elements than continuing to meet the PR Residency Obligation. In particular, additionally, it is OK to be abroad . . .
. . . As long as you respond to communications from IRCC in time to avoid the application being deemed abandoned.
. . . As long as you appear for the test and interview when scheduled.
. . . As long as the total stranger bureaucrats reviewing your application conclude that YOU have met the BURDEN of PROOF for showing you met the actual physical presence requirement.
. . . As long as you made no material misrepresentations in the application AND properly notified IRCC of any changes in that information, such as where you are actually living.

In regards to those total stranger bureaucrats who will make the decisions affecting your application, do you apprehend any of those bureaucrats might be among those you are referring to when you observe "I can sense some people got bad feelings against me because I don't live in Canada at the moment?"

If they are, it is not likely they will be exposed to your backstory, or bother to consider it even if somehow it is presented to them. They are bureaucrats.

Overall: Generally it appears that IRCC does NOT currently target applicants living abroad, at least not anywhere near so harshly as CIC did in the 2009 to 2015 time period (in addition to and apart from that short period of time when a provision in the Harper revised Citizenship Act did make living abroad after applying an explicit ground for denying the application, which was promptly repealed when the Liberals formed the government). In contrast, however, there is NO indication at all that IRCC will make it easy for such applicants. And it is likely that some apprehension, about potential bias affecting how things go, is not unfounded.


The In-Depth Explanation; Real Risks:

The most salient RISKS attendant living abroad while a citizenship application is pending are logistical, including those you are experiencing (difficulties and cost of returning to Canada on relatively short notice), as well as the risk of missing a scheduled event due to not getting the notice in time or unavoidable delays in travel (noting that there is a looming threat that Covid-19 could cause significant hurdles in short-notice travel, perhaps worse than the many days of delay in travel from Europe to Canada the Iceland volcano eruption caused a number of years ago; and of course in our individual lives sometimes stuff happens, car accidents, sudden illnesses, among other hazards in every day life).

Beyond that, for applicants who are living abroad while the application is pending, these days the risk of non-routine processing looms larger than the risk of the application being denied. These are, however, real risks. Even though, at least apparently, these risks are significantly lower today than, say, five to fifteen years ago.

Until at least 2015, for applicants who moved abroad while the application was pending the risk of extended and intrusive non-routine processing was very high, with a rather significant risk the application would eventually be denied (even though the direct grounds for the denial could NOT be the fact that the applicant moved abroad; two most common grounds were doubts about the applicant's actual amount of time in Canada or the delay in processing resulting in a breach of the PR RO). It was 15 years ago, in 2005, when the then Liberal government adopted operating guidelines that explicitly stated indications of returning to Canada in time to attend a scheduled event (passports were examined during interviews to see if stamps indicated a recent return to Canada), such as the test or an interview, was a reason to issue RQ, the Residence Questionnaire, which dramatically delayed processing timelines. That Operational Bulletin was incorporated into the Operational Manual governing assessment of the residency requirement, CP-5, which remained in effect until 2012, noting however that by then the Harper government had already implemented a far harsher approach which meant that living abroad while the application was pending was especially risky for those who applied between 2009 and 2015.

Clarification: the practice of screening applicant's travel history and identifying those who were abroad for extended periods of time after applying, was NOT about denying the application for that. It was about considering living abroad after applying to be a REASON-TO-QUESTION-RESIDENCY. Which makes sense. People tend to go on living where they have been living. So living abroad now is, at the least, a reason to more closely examine whether they were abroad more during the eligibility period than they reported. Unfortunately, since 2012 the government has deemed information about what is considered to be a reason-to-question-residency (or presence) confidential, as in a secret not to be shared with the public. So, for example, we do not know what factors are specifically considered in determining who should be issued RQ.

The revision which replaced the residency requirement with an actual physical presence requirement (2015), in conjunction with the less strict policies under the Trudeau liberal government, has resulted in significantly reducing the risks. BUT WE DO NOT KNOW THE ACTUAL SCOPE OF THIS.

Which leads back to your sense that there may be some bias at play. Again, as you aptly apprehend . . .
"I can sense some people got bad feelings against me because I don't live in Canada at the moment."​

Quite likely. Recognizing that citizenship processing agents and Citizenship Officers, one might say, are "some people," among whom some may indeed harbour such bias.

That does not mean they can or will make a decision to reject an applicant just because the applicant is living abroad after applying for citizenship. They cannot. They will not.

However, that does leave open the possibility (for some, the likelihood) their approach to weighing the evidence will be influenced. In this regard, at least in terms of assessing the number of days the applicant was actually physically present in Canada, making a successful application for citizenship depends, to a very large extent, on the IRCC decision-makers BELIEVING what the applicant claims. This is especially so in regards to making the INFERENCE that the applicant was in fact IN Canada all those days in-between a known date of entry and the next reported date of exit. The online physical presence calculator relies on this inference. It counts all those days as day IN Canada. Those IRCC personnel reviewing the application and making decisions do NOT necessarily rely on that inference. In fact, the applicant is required to provide substantial information, such as work/activity history, so that IRCC can better discern if there is any reason to question or doubt where the applicant might have actually been during those days in-between a known date of entry (easily verified by CBSA travel history) and the next reported date of exit (subject to what one might describe as circumstantial evidence rather than direct evidence).

Again, you have already moved abroad while the application is pending. Many do. MOST probably do NOT encounter problems because of this. The bigger risks are logistical.

I offer the above not to frighten or discourage you, or others. But to illuminate the nature and scope of the risks, as best we can figure these things out . . . so applicants such as yourself can be better prepared to deal with how things can go (including, as others have highlighted, it could be a couple weeks or many months, between your test and the date the oath is scheduled, and notice for the oath can be rather short). And so prospective applicants can reasonably, rationally make decisions about when to apply and whether to go abroad after applying.