Can you share some links for self filing Mandamus? I have been waiting since Nov 2024. I will be coming towards my 2 years mark soon.
To pursue Mandamus, lawyer-up. It is that simple. Commentary in this forum suggesting otherwise is, well, bad advice.
Explanation:
Most IRCC clients, most by a big margin, do not need the help of a lawyer when dealing with immigration or citizenship matters. But most immigration and citizenship matters, most by a big margin, are administrative proceedings.
Pursuing Mandamus is not an administrative proceeding. It is prosecuting litigation in the Federal Court. It is a lawsuit. Like heart surgery is for cardiologists, lawsuits are for lawyers.
A lawsuit in Federal Court seeking a remedy in Mandamus against the government is among the more technically challenging lawsuits to prosecute. I was once told by a lawyer-acquaintance that given how technical and complex actions seeking Mandamus relief are, many lawyers, maybe most, struggle to competently plead and prosecute Mandamus actions, and that many such actions crash and burn (get dismissed) due to technical errors, never getting to the merits of the case.
Meanwhile, generally, even highly competent lawyers (those not fools) do not "
self-file" lawsuits in Federal Court, including lawsuits against government entities like IRCC. It is such a well-worn adage it is trite; but it really is true:
A lawyer representing herself has a fool for a client.
But that hardly tells the tale for a non-lawyer trying to play lawyer in Federal Court, representing himself, especially in more difficult litigation like an action pursuing a Writ of Mandamus . . . well . . . yeah, that's better covered by the sort-of-adage told in film by Forrest Gump quoting his mother (borrowed and butchered in my signature below, substituting "
bureaucracy" for "
stupid").
Frankly there is a lot of bad advice about pursuing Mandamus in this forum. If waiting patiently does not work for you, and you are serious about pursuing remedies beyond nagging IRCC (regarding which there is rather little indication it works, even when a MP gets involved; one has to wonder to what extent it might even be counter-productive), gather and make copies of all your paperwork, and pay a lawyer to review your case in detail, in-depth . . . and let the lawyer say what options are available, including whether or not to even make the formal demand that must be properly made before an action for Mandamus can be filed. And very, very importantly, if the lawyer advises going aheard with Mandamus, let the lawyer say
when. Timing the pursuit of Mandamus is not so difficult as adequately framing the demand (both the formal demand to the agency, and the demand pled in the lawsuit filing itself, which are probably the most technically difficult aspects of Mandamus . . . these must be essentially perfect to have any chance of success), but timing is nonetheless a tricky decision to make. Spoiler alert: not only is two years probably too soon, probably way too soon, there is far more to consider than how long the application has been in process in deciding
when it is time to pursue Mandamus. Don't trust me, see and pay a lawyer.
To wait . . . or not to wait, to pursue a remedy . . .
The twist in all this is that if application processing is at a stage where it would be proper for a court to order the Minister of IRCC to finalize the application, IRCC is probably already on track to finalize the application.
In contrast, if IRCC is not on track to finalize the application, it is likely there is still an outstanding issue that must be resolved, in which event a court is unlikely to grant Mandamus.
So, if the Mandamus remedy is ripe, meaning the case is in a posture where Mandamus would be appropriate, it is quite likely that IRCC will proceed to finalize the citizenship application roughly within the amount of time it would take to get the Writ and IRCC to act on it. That is, it is likely that it will take a roughly similar amount of time either way.
There are exceptions of course.
