Missed my citizenship oath because I mistook the date on my computer Canlendar

[cato2015]

I was supposed to do it on the 10th of June but I went on the 12th of June instead. This is because when I was checking the date on my computer calendar in May, I clicked twice and went to July thinking it was June, and July 10 was a Friday. So I went on the 12th of June, which was a Friday and found out I mistook the date. I hand wrote a letter right away on the same day, and I have not heard from CIC. It has been over 3 months and there are ceremonies almost every day. I wrote a second letter explaining the details why I missed it a few weeks ago and still did not help. I am really worried now for 2 reasons:
1. I really want to vote on 19th of Oct, and I will very likely miss it.
2. I have seen online that someone got rejected because he had a calendar error. His explanation was deemed unacceptable.

I check my mail every day and this is really a torture... Anyone's had the same experience?

 

[cato2015]

I can't sleep now because of this. I am losing sleep...

 

[sirine1]

I can't sleep now because of this. I am losing sleep...

I could not imagine that they could reject your citizenship for a mistake . You send them already a letter . Now just to relax and be patient . Hopefully you will hear from them soon .

 

[cato2015]

Thank you, I found a case online and he got rejected... Below is what I found:

"Missed citizenship oath; application deemed abandoned
Resolved Question:
Hi I have a situation. I was invited to the citizenship oath in January but I missed it due to a calendar scheduling error. I realized that a few days after missing it. Then I wrote a letter to explain,and today I got a letter from CIC telling me that my citizenship application has been "deemed abandoned ". What can I do in this situation ? Submitting a new application will take too long ; my wife just got her Canadian Citizenship a couple of months ago."

 

[sirine1]

Thank you, I found a case online and he got rejected... Below is what I found:

"Missed citizenship oath; application deemed abandoned
Resolved Question:
Hi I have a situation. I was invited to the citizenship oath in January but I missed it due to a calendar scheduling error. I realized that a few days after missing it. Then I wrote a letter to explain,and today I got a letter from CIC telling me that my citizenship application has been "deemed abandoned ". What can I do in this situation ? Submitting a new application will take too long ; my wife just got her Canadian Citizenship a couple of months ago."
I hope this will not be your case . Does calling the call center would help ? Maybe they will advice you what to do next .

 

[Babi22]

Did you call them? I guess you did, right?

 

[nb8285]

I was supposed to do it on the 10th of June but I went on the 12th of June instead. This is because when I was checking the date on my computer calendar in May, I clicked twice and went to July thinking it was June, and July 10 was a Friday. So I went on the 12th of June, which was a Friday and found out I mistook the date. I hand wrote a letter right away on the same day, and I have not heard from CIC. It has been over 3 months and there are ceremonies almost every day. I wrote a second letter explaining the details why I missed it a few weeks ago and still did not help. I am really worried now for 2 reasons:
1. I really want to vote on 19th of Oct, and I will very likely miss it.
2. I have seen online that someone got rejected because he had a calendar error. His explanation was deemed unacceptable.

I check my mail every day and this is really a torture... Anyone's had the same experience?

This is really an idiotic mistake! Call CIC and hopefully they will reschedule.

 

[Bigudi]

I can't sleep now because of this. I am losing sleep...

I totally sympathize with you. I am the master of the stupid mistakes.

Did you actually call CIC or just wrote to them?

Listen, I know the CIC Call Center is famous for being useless and misleading, but here is something I learned about Canada since I got here back in 2011. Letters and emails will get you very slowly to what you want. Here what really works is phone calls and talk in person. I hope that helps. And I hope everything will be OK.

 

[cato2015]

Thanks guys. I did call CIC many times... They said I did what I am supposed to do already, and all I need to do is to wait. They don't confirm if they got my letter nor do they know how long I have to wait. They said, the longest processing time is 3 years (mine has been 1 year and 3 months), and if it passes 3 years, then I can contact them... They asked me to check my status online, but it has no update after the status that they sent me the first notice. What else is there for me to do?..

 

[puda]

There is nothing you can do I am sorry... If they don't like your explanation they will send you a letter of Abandonment indeed...

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/cit/admin/general/abandon.asp

The applicant does not appear at their citizenship ceremony upon first notice.

1. If an applicant contacts CIC to provide an explanation for missing their appointment, local CIC officials must make a determination as to whether the excuse is reasonable and communicate the results of that determination to the applicant.

2. If the explanation is refused, or if the applicant does not contact CIC to provide an explanation, the Abandonment of Citizenship Application notice [CIT 0543] must be sent to the applicant to explain that their application will be treated as abandoned, according to A13.2. After this correspondence is sent, no further action will be taken on the file.

Ceremony (oath) no-show

Applicants are given one opportunity to appear for their citizenship ceremony and take the oath of citizenship using notice CIT 0024. Those who do not attend their ceremony will not be rescheduled automatically into a new event.

Applicants who do not or cannot attend their event must notify CIC within 30 days from the date of their event. Applicants must provide a reasonable excuse for not being able to attend their event.

That's probably what happened to the other person but I mean that's really unfortunate... I am not sure what to say here unless there is nothing more you can do. I am really sorry about all this You can only wait and hope the person in charge of your application will accept your excuse.

BUT it seems you can always ask for reactivation of the case.

Applications that are treated as abandoned due to the procedures outlined must be kept at the local office for a period of six months in case of litigation or reactivation of the case.

Good luck my friend, let us know asap!

 

[cato2015]

Thank you. I read all that already... I already reached out to our MP here to see what they can do... I will keep you guys updated.

 

[keesio]

Unfortunately you are at the mercy of CIC. If given prior notice, they can be pretty reasonable. But if you miss it without giving prior notice, then you need a really good excuse.

Some excuses that I've seen accepted by CIC (without prior notice) were:
-I was pregnant and gave birth a few days before my oath
-My father died suddenly and I went back to my home country for the funeral and did not have time to notify CIC
-I got into a serious auto accident and was in the hospital
etc

as you can see, they are all serious issues. CIC will likely be less forgiving about "I mixed up the date". But it doesn't mean they will cancel it for sure. Keep trying to reach them and hope you get a sympathetic ear.

 

[Bigudi]

Thank you. I read all that already... I already reached out to our MP here to see what they can do... I will keep you guys updated.

That's a good idea. Especially in an election year.

 

[cato2015]

Unfortunately you are at the mercy of CIC. If given prior notice, they can be pretty reasonable. But if you miss it without giving prior notice, then you need a really good excuse.

Some excuses that I've seen accepted by CIC (without prior notice) were:
-I was pregnant and gave birth a few days before my oath
-My father died suddenly and I went back to my home country for the funeral and did not have time to notify CIC
-I got into a serious auto accident and was in the hospital
etc

as you can see, they are all serious issues. CIC will likely be less forgiving about "I mixed up the date". But it doesn't mean they will cancel it for sure. Keep trying to reach them and hope you get a sympathetic ear.

You got me really worried here... If they are going to cancel on because of my honesty, I will then find a way to make this public. How would a loyal tax-paying immigrant get rejected when all criteria are well met. If I were to re-apply, the documents will be exactly the same. It will be a waste of my money and their time to redo exactly the same thing.

 

[keesio]

How would a loyal tax-paying immigrant get rejected when all criteria are well met.

The issue is that they have one overly strict criteria that was not met in your case - give CIC prior notice if you can't make your oath date otherwise risk that they may consider your application abandoned.

If you have to re-apply, unless you first applied after the new requirements that was implemented in June, the documents will not be the same.