Citizenship applications for Protected Persons
- Thread starter Jok Sue
- Start date
There's no real way to answer this question. Officially, there's no difference. How long a specific application will take depends on many factors.
Nationality may (not necessarily will!) be a factor for a lengthy application, if you're wondering about factors that the applicant can't control themselves. If you look at mandamus cases in CanLII, you'll see Chinese nationals, Iranians, Syrians, but not many, if any, French or New Zealand citizen that were stuck for so long that they had to go the courts and then all the way to the hearing. And the truth is, there's a significantly higher chance a protected person comes from Syria VS France...
Add to it, in case of PR refugees, whether there's any hint of reavailment which will delays things quite a lot, but you're not asking about people who applied after doing something they shouldn't have done, so probably outside the scope of the question.
That being said, there are also scores of PRs who were protected persons and got their citizenship quickly and with no fuss, and it can absolutely be your case.
If you're asking this trying to figure out how your future specific application will go, and you're not merely interested in stats, it's a fool's errand, there's just no way to know in advance. All you can do is to make sure your application is as precise as possible (no missing trips, no small or not so small mistakes here and there...) and then hope for the best.
Nationality may (not necessarily will!) be a factor for a lengthy application, if you're wondering about factors that the applicant can't control themselves. If you look at mandamus cases in CanLII, you'll see Chinese nationals, Iranians, Syrians, but not many, if any, French or New Zealand citizen that were stuck for so long that they had to go the courts and then all the way to the hearing. And the truth is, there's a significantly higher chance a protected person comes from Syria VS France...
Add to it, in case of PR refugees, whether there's any hint of reavailment which will delays things quite a lot, but you're not asking about people who applied after doing something they shouldn't have done, so probably outside the scope of the question.
That being said, there are also scores of PRs who were protected persons and got their citizenship quickly and with no fuss, and it can absolutely be your case.
If you're asking this trying to figure out how your future specific application will go, and you're not merely interested in stats, it's a fool's errand, there's just no way to know in advance. All you can do is to make sure your application is as precise as possible (no missing trips, no small or not so small mistakes here and there...) and then hope for the best.
The official estimated processing time is the same, yes.
In practice, as @Seym noted, there's no difference expected based on which stream an applicant became a PR.
But there are several things that could make it longer that either overlap more with being a PP - eg nationality and likelihood of being a protected person, security evaluations (and difficulty of getting reliable information - some delays at least are likely just while they attempt to get info or waiting for some). For example, coming from a war zone or similar.
And the question of whether the applicant 'reavailed' themselves - esp whether visited home country - is specific only to those who received PR via protected person.
Neither of these mean all PRs who received it this way will face serious delays (even the reavailment issue is still relatively rare). Many will have it go fairly quickly. Those with similar issues/backgrounds from other programs would likely also face delays.
Hi! I have a question, in the citizenship calculator they ask:
"Please only list the periods of time you had authorized temporary resident or protected person status in Canada and the type of status you had between 2021-01-24 and 2024-01-11 and select Add Entry. Select Calculate when you have finished listing all periods of temporary residence"
My question is: the time that I spent in canada without protected person status (refugee claimant) won´t count here? The options are visitor, international student, temporary worker, temporary resident permit holder, protected person.
"Please only list the periods of time you had authorized temporary resident or protected person status in Canada and the type of status you had between 2021-01-24 and 2024-01-11 and select Add Entry. Select Calculate when you have finished listing all periods of temporary residence"
My question is: the time that I spent in canada without protected person status (refugee claimant) won´t count here? The options are visitor, international student, temporary worker, temporary resident permit holder, protected person.
Probably not.
Days in Canada as a refugee claimant prior to the date the claim is approved do not count toward meeting the physical presence requirement for citizenship.
Only days in Canada after a refugee claim has been approved will count (half-day credit). Once the refugee claim is approved, the refugee has temporary resident status as a protected person.
This is clearly set out in the guide for making a citizenship application in the section about "Who can apply."
It is really important to fully and carefully go through the guide before making a citizenship application. Information there is far more reliable than in largely unregulated open sources like this.
Uncommon example otherwise:
That said (at the risk of causing confusion, as this is unusual), if apart from being a refugee claimant a PR was in Canada with temporary resident status prior to obtaining PR status, and that was within the five year eligibility period, those days will count. In particular, any period of time during which a PR was in Canada prior to becoming a PR, and within the previous five years, during which they had temporary resident status explicitly granted by Canadian immigration authorities, is entitled to pre-PR half-day credit toward the citizenship physical presence requirement. You reference the various types of temporary resident status a Foreign National can be granted, which are visitor, student, worker, or temporary resident permit holder.
I cannot say (based on what you information you provide) whether or not, apart from making a refugee claim, you were granted such temporary resident status. Probably not. If you entered Canada as a refugee claimant or otherwise you were in Canada as a refugee claimant, it is unlikely you could count any days prior to the date the refugee claim was approved.
