reschedule oath date- please help

[ms12001w]

Hi ,

I have just received a letter for my oath date in 2 weeks. Unfortunately i have booked ticket to travel next week and come back in January. to change my ticket is very expensive.

can i reschedule my oath? has my over done this before successfully?

is my new oath date going to be delayed much? am i going to get an RQ?

My local office is Vancouver.

please help. :-[ :-[

 

[ms12001w]

please respond to my question its very urgent. :-[

 

[ms12001w]

you will have to either give up your traveling plan or Citizenship. Decision is yours.

why give up my citizenship? why can't i reschedule?

 

[Sophie_Anne]

I think you can reschedule. I have seen other people rescheduling without any problems. I suggest calling the Call Centre for additional suggestions and instructions on how to reschedule.

Good luck!

 

[ms12001w]

I think you can reschedule. I have seen other people rescheduling without any problems. I suggest calling the Call Center for additional suggestions and instructions on how to reschedule.

Good luck!

Thanks Sophie, I phoned CIC and they told me that i need to send or fax a letter explain my situation.

hast anyone rescheduled their oath successfully? does it have to be an emergency to be accepted?

i read a post in the forum that i may get a RQ? is that correct?

 

[catchvb]

Hi ,

I have just received a letter for my oath date in 2 weeks. Unfortunately i have booked ticket to travel next week and come back in January. to change my ticket is very expensive.

can i reschedule my oath? has my over done this before successfully?

is my new oath date going to be delayed much? am i going to get an RQ?

My local office is Vancouver.

please help. :-[ :-[

1. Call the CIC and ask for the next date.
2. Send letter (by express post) to the local office which sent you the oath letter saying your reason and to ask for rescheduling with copy of oath letter. They will give you in next setting.
3. if by chance you have office number of local office call and try to explain your situation to a local officer.

My husband rescheduled his Test as well as Oath and he did not get RQ for that. Check in June 2014 thread there is one applicant who just rescheduled his/her test date.

You will not loose your citizenship. Your Oath will get postponed to next one (if seat available). My husband got next to next one. It will not be delayed much.They send oath letter a month before so it will not be an year delay.

Just relax. your application is complete. decision is made. Congrats and just do step1&2 for sure and step 3 if you get the number.

Think logically If someone does not get mail OR is out of town when mail is delivered OR is in hospital on oath day OR gets mail after the oath date.. what happens?
..one DO NOT loose citizenship.oath gets postponed to next setting when available.

 

[NigerianCanadian]

Hey,

Yes I recently had to reschedule my test date as well. I got the letter this past Friday for an exam in one week (December 8, 2014).

My next steps:
- I wrote a letter and sent to my local office with proof of my school exam schedule. For you send proof of travel I guess.
- I called the general CIC line and they weren't very helpful. They just said I would be seen as an "absentee" on test day and would be automatically be rescheduled.
- I went on google and searched CIC directory (cant post link here), and found a list of telephone numbers for my local office. I spoke to a local immigration officer, and she was kind enough to put a note on my file to have me rescheduled for January.

I don't know what the outcome will be, but I'm hoping it will be good news in January, and no RQ! You can try the above steps for your oath rescheduling! Good luck.

1. Call the CIC and ask for the next date.
2. Send letter (by express post) to the local office which sent you the oath letter saying your reason and to ask for rescheduling with copy of oath letter. They will give you in next setting.
3. if by chance you have office number of local office call and try to explain your situation to a local officer.

My husband rescheduled his Test as well as Oath and he did not get RQ for that. Check in June 2014 thread there is one applicant who just rescheduled his/her test date.

You will not loose your citizenship. Your Oath will get postponed to next one (if seat available). My husband got next to next one. It will not be delayed much.They send oath letter a month before so it will not be an year delay.

Just relax. your application is complete. decision is made. Congrats and just do step1&2 for sure and step 3 if you get the number.

Think logically If someone does not get mail OR is out of town when mail is delivered OR is in hospital on oath day OR gets mail after the oath date.. what happens?
..one DO NOT loose citizenship.oath gets postponed to next setting when available.

 

[dpenabill]

You may want to peruse the experience recently reported at the immigration.ca forum, at this link.

Short version:

. . . already booked my vacations for Dec 2014 in Feb 2014 and I would be away from Canada for the entire month of Dec returning in Jan 2015 . . . called CIC and was told that if I cannot attend the Oath ceremony, to write a letter to CIC explaning why I wasn't able to make it. If the reasons provided were good, they would be able to re-schedule the date for the Oath taking. I sent them the letter explaining the reasons why . . . all genuine reasons. I also asked them if they could provide a date for me in Jan 2015.

. . . received a letter from CIC stating that my application has been abandoned and I would have to reapply as the reasons I provided were not justifiable as per section 13(1) of the Citizenship act.

There is also a very recent Federal Court decision regarding CIC's approach to deeming applications abandoned and terminating them. See the Karim Ayyad decision. What constitutes an acceptable reason for missing the scheduled oath is a key issue discussed in this case. (Applicant prevailed in the appeal, but it is CIC's position and approach that warrants careful attention.)

Isolated reports (even those reflected in official decisions) do not necessarily tell us how CIC is approaching most individuals in these situations, but it at least appears there is a significant risk that CIC is taking a draconian approach regarding foreign travel . . . that is, there is a risk that if the explanation or excuse is tied to foreign travel, CIC will find it is not an "acceptable" reason, deem the application abandoned, and terminate processing.

It may make a difference if the letter itself arrives at CIC before the date of the oath. I think in the two instances referred to above, the explanation did not get to CIC until after the scheduled oath.

 

[ronin21]

Hi ,

I have just received a letter for my oath date in 2 weeks. Unfortunately i have booked ticket to travel next week and come back in January. to change my ticket is very expensive.

can i reschedule my oath? has my over done this before successfully?

Take dpenabill's advice serious, if you can reschedule your trip do it and attend your oath, you never know what would be the outcome from CIC especially these days. In my opinion, no trip is more important than taking the oath on time and get it done.

 

[catchvb]

You may want to peruse the experience recently reported at the immigration.ca forum, at this link.

Short version:
There is also a very recent Federal Court decision regarding CIC's approach to deeming applications abandoned and terminating them. See the Karim Ayyad decision. What constitutes an acceptable reason for missing the scheduled oath is a key issue discussed in this case. (Applicant prevailed in the appeal, but it is CIC's position and approach that warrants careful attention.)

Isolated reports (even those reflected in official decisions) do not necessarily tell us how CIC is approaching most individuals in these situations, but it at least appears there is a significant risk that CIC is taking a draconian approach regarding foreign travel . . . that is, there is a risk that if the explanation or excuse is tied to foreign travel, CIC will find it is not an "acceptable" reason, deem the application abandoned, and terminate processing.

It may make a difference if the letter itself arrives at CIC before the date of the oath. I think in the two instances referred to above, the explanation did not get to CIC until after the scheduled oath.

This is scary. May be sending letter/call before the scheduled oath dates makes difference. I will suggest try to talk to local officer and they confirm you about the change you are good.
In my husband's case probably the officer in local office are nice. In this case the judge was grumpy as he saw someone absent with reason not justified to him.
I will strongly suggest talk to local officer. If he /She confirms the change ask the name and email id/extn number for future reference. Ask politely.

If in doubt change your flight tickets. Take Oath.. wait for 2 days and apply get same day passport and fly with new passport.

 

[keesio]

Thanks Sophie, I phoned CIC and they told me that i need to send or fax a letter explain my situation.

hast anyone rescheduled their oath successfully? does it have to be an emergency to be accepted?

i read a post in the forum that i may get a RQ? is that correct?

I know of a few people who were able to reschedule successfully. And they did not get an RQ. So it is certainly possible. For one of the people, the reason was to travel for a sibling's wedding and they had purchased the ticket months in advance.

 

[ms12001w]

oh my god, i certainly do not want my application to be abandon.

anyone has phone number for Vancouver office?

 

[dpenabill]

Note: I did not suggest how this will go for ms12001w.

I do not know how it will go. No one else knows for sure either.

And a CIC call centre representative will provide no guarantees either, except to say (one way or another) that IF the explanation is acceptable, the oath will be rescheduled.

That is a big IF.

Therein lies the dilemma, the risk: if the explanation involves travel abroad, there is little assurance let alone any guarantee.

I believe that a number of other factors, circumstances, can have an impact on how this goes for a particular individual. I mentioned one: whether the letter arrives at CIC before the actual date the oath is scheduled or not. There are, undoubtedly, other factors.

There are multiple problems with the current process. One is how little advance notice (of the date for the oath) is given, less than a month for a large number, barely two weeks or so for many. Another is that there are so few known guidelines about what is an acceptable excuse, and it is largely in the discretion of a Citizenship Officer.

Regarding the latter: the decision is now made by a CIC officer, not a Citizenship Judge.

 

[ms12001w]

I actually went to Vancouver local office, although i was unable to see an officer, but the security person at the front desk told me, do not worry and you have a valid reason and you hav already purchased a ticket so she asked me to write a letter there and she photocopied my ticket as well and put it in an envelope and said have a nice trip.

she said they get these kind of requests all the time. and said not to worry and i will get another oath date because this is my first time requesting.

fingers crossed.

 

[dpenabill]

This is probably very common.

Which of course highlights how unfair it can be for some, such as for those who do not get notice in time to make the request or offer an explanation prior to the date the oath is scheduled.

The extra effort to assure it will be rescheduled was probably well worth it.

Enjoy your trip.