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My Citizenship experience, Mandamus, ATIPs and all the things related.

ambient2

Hero Member
May 30, 2015
242
26
Toronto
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
Finally, Today at 9am Scarberia time, I became Canadian citizen.
Before saying goodbye to this forum (where I've spent 8 days in total) and removing EcAS from my homepage, I wanted to wrap up my experience with IRCC and also thank all members of this forum who shared their stories and were very helpful.

Here is my Timeline;

07/10/2014 - Application submitted Toronto GTA
03/06/2015 - Passed the test 20/20, Told by CO to wait for 4-6 weeks for the Oath letter. Mississauga
23/07/2015 - File was transferred to St.Clair CPC - (The reason of the transfer - CBSA failed to respond) St.Clair
22/06/2016 - Demand Letter from the lawyer.
03/08/2016 - Application for leave and judicial review.
16/09/2016 - DM (two weeks before submitting affidavit to the Federal Court)
30/09/2016 - Oath Ceremony Scarborough

In the period between July 2015 and September 2016
I've contacted my MP (few letters were sent on his behalf to IRCC and CBSA), Minister of Immigration (Letter sent from me through MP), Two letters were sent from me to CPC to inquire the reason of the delay. Requested 8 ATIPs from IRCC, 1 ATIP (physical scan) IRCC, 1 ATIP from CBSA. Call Center agents sent four reminders. Requested four Case specific inquiries.
There was no movement, no reason of the delay was provided.

In June I decided to go for Mandamus, I hired a citizenship lawyer (who was recommended by my Lawyer friend).
Demand letter was sent to St.Clair office with zero reaction from their side.
Application for leave and judicial review was served in 2 weeks after deadline from the demand letter.
In one month, lawyer from Department of Justice (lawyer representing IRCC ) made sure that my application for citizenship was finalized few days before my deadline to submit affidavit to the court.

Total time from submitting application to getting a citizenship - 24 Months minus one week (no RQ nor FP were requested).

One can say that I went overboard with all these requests , but bear in mind, this paranoia started after file was transferred to St.Clair office with its not so stellar reputation (people waiting for their Citizenship for 5-6-7 years in there!)



Anyway, I wish you all luck with your journey and don't let IRCC break you.



p.s. While I was writing this I've got my last ATIP, with the most delightful changes I've seen in my ATIP's history, it's hard to describe how aesthetically pleasing it is.
 

Rigly68

Hero Member
Apr 16, 2013
768
89
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
Congratulations ambient2 and all the best for your future!
 

march2016

Star Member
Sep 14, 2016
80
6
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
Hearty Congratulations on becoming Canadian :). Thanks for sharing your experience and well written.
 

heeradeepak

Hero Member
Jun 1, 2014
398
11
ambient2 said:
Finally, Today at 9am Scarberia time, I became Canadian citizen.
Before saying goodbye to this forum (where I've spent 8 days in total) and removing EcAS from my homepage, I wanted to wrap up my experience with IRCC and also thank all members of this forum who shared their stories and were very helpful.

Here is my Timeline;

07/10/2014 - Application submitted Toronto GTA
03/06/2015 - Passed the test 20/20, Told by CO to wait for 4-6 weeks for the Oath letter. Mississauga
23/07/2015 - File was transferred to St.Clair CPC - (The reason of the transfer - CBSA failed to respond) St.Clair
22/06/2016 - Demand Letter from the lawyer.
03/08/2016 - Application for leave and judicial review.
16/09/2016 - DM (two weeks before submitting affidavit to the Federal Court)
30/09/2016 - Oath Ceremony Scarborough

In the period between July 2015 and September 2016
I've contacted my MP (few letters were sent on his behalf to IRCC and CBSA), Minister of Immigration (Letter sent from me through MP), Two letters were sent from me to CPC to inquire the reason of the delay. Requested 8 ATIPs from IRCC, 1 ATIP (physical scan) IRCC, 1 ATIP from CBSA. Call Center agents sent four reminders. Requested four Case specific inquiries.
There was no movement, no reason of the delay was provided.

In June I decided to go for Mandamus, I hired a citizenship lawyer (who was recommended by my Lawyer friend).
Demand letter was sent to St.Clair office with zero reaction from their side.
Application for leave and judicial review was served in 2 weeks after deadline from the demand letter.
In one month, lawyer from Department of Justice (lawyer representing IRCC ) made sure that my application for citizenship was finalized few days before my deadline to submit affidavit to the court.

Total time from submitting application to getting a citizenship - 24 Months minus one week (no RQ nor FP were requested).

One can say that I went overboard with all these requests , but bear in mind, this paranoia started after file was transferred to St.Clair office with its not so stellar reputation (people waiting for their Citizenship for 5-6-7 years in there!)



Anyway, I wish you all luck with your journey and don't let IRCC break you.



p.s. While I was writing this I've got my last ATIP, with the most delightful changes I've seen in my ATIP's history, it's hard to describe how aesthetically pleasing it is.
Congratulations ambient and pray for other innocent applicants waiting for their Citizenship for 5-6-7 years.
 

links18

Champion Member
Feb 1, 2006
2,009
128
Congratulations and good for you for not taking their delay as a given. But I have to say, what is considered a delay today was generally accepted as normal processing time not too long ago. Glad things are speeding up in general, but this just proves that the excruciating delays many of us experienced under a certain government were not in the nature of the process and if more of us had filed for mandamus rather than being scared away by naysayers who said it would never work, maybe stakeholders would have gotten the message sooner and things would have changed earlier.
 

sfaisalm

Full Member
Oct 25, 2012
29
4
Congratulations. The sad part is, now people have to pay heavy fees to get Citizenship. I like your way to hire a lawyer. And thank you very much to share your experience.
 

b52shot

Star Member
Oct 8, 2013
110
8
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
It would be cool if we can keep a record of all lawyer names used by our members and their contact numbers just in case someone faces similar issues in the future.
 

ambient2

Hero Member
May 30, 2015
242
26
Toronto
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
globaltravel said:
Buddy a question when you saw decision made

what was written in the decision made any line?
It was just "decision made", in few weeks it got updated to the Oath invitation, and after one month of taking the Oath it got updated again to - You become a citizen.
It would be cool if we can keep a record of all lawyer names used by our members and their contact numbers just in case someone faces similar issues in the future.
You do understand that this forum is hosted by the Law firm who works on Immigration cases?
Not everyone would be happy to get advertisement of different law firms on their own forum
 

sfaisalm

Full Member
Oct 25, 2012
29
4
Finally all done.
Oath took more than a year after written test.
Lesson Learned
MPs don't help, they have too many calls, and as soon as you enter, they starts speaking "we can't do any thing" so nothing that they listen.
If no questionnaire is asked(which was in my case) likely there is an error in their system and no one can help except you hire a lawyer or someone detects and correct. This seems to be in my case that someone detected error and corrected.

Thanks

Mohammad
 

Samour

Newbie
Mar 1, 2018
9
4
Lebanon
Category........
FSW
NOC Code......
2171
App. Filed.......
12-09-2017
AOR Received.
12-09-2017
Med's Done....
28-09-2017
Passport Req..
07-05-2018
VISA ISSUED...
01-06-2018
Finally, Today at 9am Scarberia time, I became Canadian citizen.
Before saying goodbye to this forum (where I've spent 8 days in total) and removing EcAS from my homepage, I wanted to wrap up my experience with IRCC and also thank all members of this forum who shared their stories and were very helpful.

Here is my Timeline;

07/10/2014 - Application submitted Toronto GTA
03/06/2015 - Passed the test 20/20, Told by CO to wait for 4-6 weeks for the Oath letter. Mississauga
23/07/2015 - File was transferred to St.Clair CPC - (The reason of the transfer - CBSA failed to respond) St.Clair
22/06/2016 - Demand Letter from the lawyer.
03/08/2016 - Application for leave and judicial review.
16/09/2016 - DM (two weeks before submitting affidavit to the Federal Court)
30/09/2016 - Oath Ceremony Scarborough

In the period between July 2015 and September 2016
I've contacted my MP (few letters were sent on his behalf to IRCC and CBSA), Minister of Immigration (Letter sent from me through MP), Two letters were sent from me to CPC to inquire the reason of the delay. Requested 8 ATIPs from IRCC, 1 ATIP (physical scan) IRCC, 1 ATIP from CBSA. Call Center agents sent four reminders. Requested four Case specific inquiries.
There was no movement, no reason of the delay was provided.

In June I decided to go for Mandamus, I hired a citizenship lawyer (who was recommended by my Lawyer friend).
Demand letter was sent to St.Clair office with zero reaction from their side.
Application for leave and judicial review was served in 2 weeks after deadline from the demand letter.
In one month, lawyer from Department of Justice (lawyer representing IRCC ) made sure that my application for citizenship was finalized few days before my deadline to submit affidavit to the court.

Total time from submitting application to getting a citizenship - 24 Months minus one week (no RQ nor FP were requested).

One can say that I went overboard with all these requests , but bear in mind, this paranoia started after file was transferred to St.Clair office with its not so stellar reputation (people waiting for their Citizenship for 5-6-7 years in there!)



Anyway, I wish you all luck with your journey and don't let IRCC break you.



p.s. While I was writing this I've got my last ATIP, with the most delightful changes I've seen in my ATIP's history, it's hard to describe how aesthetically pleasing it is.
Great story :)
I was in same situation but I had RQ.
Mine took 4 years

How much did the lawyer cost you?