Ummmm.... while I applaud attempts to compare one jurisdiction (esp one such as Australia) to another (Canada) in this instance, you have to be careful to compare like to like. Waiting lists are not annual throughput / applications, is one basic example. Okay, it's not always easy to find the same numbers, but at least attempt to do so (and note where the numbers don't match).
Ahhh... good catch. Both were "processing times" but I missed that there was an apples to oranges difference here.
I actually wasn't able to find good numbers from IRCC for this year, but last year (Jan to Oct 2024 to be specific - covering a period of 304 days) it seems that they did >325,000 apps. Rounding this down to an even 325,000, we can make an assumption (that this trend holds for the rest of 2024) and extrapolate how much would have been handled for the whole year 325,000 / 304 * 364 ~= 390,214.
Meanwhile, while covering a slightly different period of time (July 2024 to June 2025),
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-statistics/statistics/citizenship-statistics says that 165,193 folks became Australian citizens.
While that suggests it's roughly 2.3x as much (390,214 / 165,193), according to
https://immigration.ca/citizenship-uptake-falls-in-2025-as-fewer-immigrants-become-canadian/ 2025 actually had a bit of a slowdown. So going with 2x (instead of 3x as I wrote previously) seems reasonable.
Okay, it's not always easy to find the same numbers, but at least attempt to do so (and note where the numbers don't match).
Agreed - I've made an attempt to do so (though I do make mistakes from time to time) and will continue to do so (as well as correct any mistakes as soon as they're pointed out).
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you've compared the 8X number that (I'm pretty sure) you made up - or at least is highly speculative
That comes from
https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-i...hip-applications.869454/page-77#post-11111154 so I
made it up derived it from (224 online citizenship ceremonies held per month * 135 clients on average invited to those ceremonies) / (52 in-person citizenship ceremonies held per month * 75 clients on average invited to these ceremonies) ~= 30240 / 3900 ~= 7.75
That said, this is from Oct 2023, so applying it to current trends is indeed highly speculative.
you have to be careful to compare like to like.
But the part I've bolded above is, ahem, a thought crime: you've compared the 8X number
- to the 'volume' number (that has its own issues).
Another good point. You're also correct here - I'm making an assumption that the comparison in numerical differences between in-person and online ceremonies will generalize to the overall processing time.
On reflection, I believe I was mistaken on this.
I believe processing time counts from the app being received to either the app being denied or to the point of oath at the ceremony (or in lieu of for those few who are eligible to get citizenship without an oath). But say for example a change (e.g. to remove online citizenship ceremonies altogether) leads to an increase in waiting time for the ceremony part alone from 1 month to 13 months. The ceremony part has gone up by 13x but the overall processing time has only doubled (using the current 13 months processing time).
What this suggests is that switching from online ceremonies to in-person ones might double the time, but then switching to locally managed ceremonies instead of centralized once might make up for the difference. In fact this may benefit those who prefer in-person ceremonies (by decreasing their waiting time).
That said, I overall agree with your point - esp on the centralization part, there's no reason IRCC couldn't leverage much more resources locally (who would for the most part love to participate!). As far as I can tell by law (partly by memory i.e. I haven't checked the text of the alw), the only part that's critical is the citizenship judge, which I'm sure could be finessed somehow - as they've done by going virtual.
In fact, if the law can be tweaked, I'd be ok with going further - the citizenship judge can move the application to an "approved-in-principle" status and then pass it to the local folks, who would deal with the scheduling and such and then verify that the person attended the ceremony and took the oath to complete the grant.
[Don't take offence at thought crime, I say that in good humour]
It's all good - I'm an avid reader of 1984 too. More seriously, I do appreciate all the good advice you've given here along with the effort to help me correct any mistakes I've made.
