Citizenship Interviews..are they required at all? inconsistency and bias

[nkam]

Interviews entail an element of bias in favour of or against the interviewee as with job interviews. There has been high level of inconsistency in handling similar situations and circumstances.
Applicants skills in presenting their case may also differ. Some are excellent in convincing and presentation skills whereas some are weak and may score less because of personal characteristics...
Why can’t CIC assess applications on written original evidence and call for interviews only when necessary. This model proved successful across many European countries.
How do you agree or disagree with the above statements and is there anything that can be done to redress such inconsistency going forward?

 

[nope]

European countries rarely have mass immigration, and their citizenship requirements are far more stringent.

The citizenship interview is the opportunity for the applicant to answer about any difficulties in their files. Most people would FAR rather do this in person, than have to communicate with a bureaucracy by mail. I had problems with CRA that took 13 months to straighten out, because we never had the opportunity to go into their office and present our information.

 

[canvis2006]

Best is to order GCMS (case notes) either electronic or physical, and then deal with their procedures that way.
Remember that courts are always an option. Every document that is submitted HAS TO BE considered when making decisions.

hopefully the policies will be much better under Liberal Govt

 

[dpenabill]

I do not have an opinion regarding the efficacy of in-person interviews, but will observe that the primary purposes of the in-person interviews are fairly straight-forward:
-- opportunity to visually verify applicant is person indicated in submitted application
-- opportunity to observe applicant's demeanor and responses to questions for purposes of assessing credibility
-- facilitate examination of original documents without the applicant having to mail and go a time period without having the original documents in his or her possession
-- to verify the applicant is a person actually in Canada

Overall, my sense is this suggestion is not worth debating since there is virtually no chance that Canada is going to change the procedure to eliminate the in-person interview.


[quote author=canvis2006]Remember that courts are always an option.[/quote]

No longer entirely true. There is NO right of appeal. Citizenship applicants must make an application for leave to appeal in order to obtain review by the Courts, and recent Federal Court decision indicated this applies to an application for a Writ of Mandamus as well as challenging a decision by IRCC.