PR applicants who may also be citizens-by-descent

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Radio piece and news article from CBC today:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/immigration-permanent-resident-billc3-9.7409321

Key part:
CBC News has learned that Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada quietly put permanent resident applications on hold for an unknown number of people who could now qualify for citizenship under Bill C-3.

In short, those who have applied for citizenship-by-descent are having their immigration applications held up - and c-b-d apps are taking a long time indeed. So those citizens have no straightforward way to be able to settle in Canada.

So perversely: those who are /by law/ citizens from birth are now disadvantaged compared to non-citizens.

[I think there are probably ways to deal with this, albeit not cleanly - like moving to Canada and demanding a SIN number, etc - and eventually IRCC will be forced to deal with it - but in the interim, it's a mess.]

Alternatively the better way in some cases at the moment seems to be to not submit a citizenship-by-descent app until one becomes a PR. I'm not saying this as the 'best' way or a recommendation, but at the moment, that seems to be the incentive.

It may make sense to consult an immigration lawyer, but it seems at present this is a new enough problem that lawyers may have to wait and see what develops, too.

 

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As a side note, I presume that this policy would mean that an applicant that they consider possibly-a-citizen is also not eligible for a work permit (citizens have the right to work, so how could they be eligible for a work permit, which grants them the permission to work?).

Leading to a catch-22, in that a presumed-citizen should be able to work, but can't be granted permission to work (as eg a spousal sponsorship applicant could), but also can't get any documents demonstrating that they have a right to work (eg a SIN).

This could probably be fixed by providing some mechanism for the Minister to grant a work permit (or some form of 'residency'), on a provisional or presumed basis - but my wild guess is that in both cases might even require an amendment to a number of different laws, or at least some creative legal work and a policy decision by IRCC and its legal advisors.