Missisauga office - file was transferred there in Oct 2013. Since then, no updated on ECAS. Call centre agents say all background checks have been completed as of last month. Still no invite for written test. Whenever I call the call centre, they sing the same song like a parrot - "Standard processing time is 2 years...please get lost".
September 2013 Citizenship Application
- Thread starter gmmak
- Start date
Why is everybody so silent on this thread? I completed 18 months now. All background checks done as of Feb 2015. Call centre tells me that they will call me for citizenship test in "due course". Got my MPs office to call CIC, received the same "in due course" ambiguous response. No end in sight to the process. Really frustrated waiting endlessly for this process to be completed.
Dear FluteFlute said:
Surprised you are still awaiting for test . Any complication in your case ??? RQ ???
No complication at all. CIC did not ask me to send any documents. I did not get any RQ either. I worked and studied in Canada during the last 5 yrs. I have also volunteered extensively for non-profits in Canada. I am as good a Canadian as anyone can be ! I read, write and speak better English than many Canadians born in Canada. But I had about 10 short duration trips spread across 3 yrs; mostly to US. Each trip was for 2-3 days, all duly accounted for in the residency calculation submitted to CIC. In a bid to explain myself, and out of some anxiety to avoid an RQ, I voluntarily submitted lot of supporting documents, which in hindsight I should not have done at all. Not that there were any grounds for issuing an RQ, but the information I was getting on forums and in the media was that CIC has been unleashing the RQ on one and all on the slightest pretext. That made me do things that I would not have otherwise done. Additional documents might have increased the amount of paper work that CIC staff needs to process. Also, it acts as an eye-sore, because staff tends to deal with easier cases first. I suspect this is the main reason for the delay. But since Feb 2015; all my background checks have been cleared. So not really sure what is holding up CIC from asking me to take the written test.
Passed citizenship test. Got 19 right out of a total of 20 questions. Its a fairly easy test if you have read the Discover Canada booklet even once. Some questions were slam dunk easy, but there were 2 or 3 tricky ones. Given that you need to get atleast 15 correct answers out of a total of 20 questions, there isn't a lot of room for error. If you don't study, I think it would be easy to fail, or you might just pass by the skin of your teeth.
While studying from the Discover Canada guide, I got the impression that the language used, as well as the content is of a fairly high standard, that someone with college or university education would be able to cope with. But many new immigrants who don't come from English speaking backgrounds (eg Chinese) would find this test challenging. In particular, I found the history section of the guide, hard to remember. Its full of new words, alien facts and dense with lot of information. Overall, I found that the guide has enough complexity, whereby if the government of the day ever wanted to needle immigrants for any reason, or bring down the overall passing rates to 30%, it could easily do so, through a combination of tricky questions, more difficult fact based questions and options that are difficult to eliminate due to being very close to the correct answer. Thus far, the government has chosen not to go there, which is good for all of us
Overall, impression is, its easy if you have studied directly from the guide and if you are from a English speaking country. Its not easy if you are unfamiliar with the content.
While studying from the Discover Canada guide, I got the impression that the language used, as well as the content is of a fairly high standard, that someone with college or university education would be able to cope with. But many new immigrants who don't come from English speaking backgrounds (eg Chinese) would find this test challenging. In particular, I found the history section of the guide, hard to remember. Its full of new words, alien facts and dense with lot of information. Overall, I found that the guide has enough complexity, whereby if the government of the day ever wanted to needle immigrants for any reason, or bring down the overall passing rates to 30%, it could easily do so, through a combination of tricky questions, more difficult fact based questions and options that are difficult to eliminate due to being very close to the correct answer. Thus far, the government has chosen not to go there, which is good for all of us
Overall, impression is, its easy if you have studied directly from the guide and if you are from a English speaking country. Its not easy if you are unfamiliar with the content.
Congratulatiod Flute so late but right. Please give detail of interview. Any reason for Late you find ???
Written test will comprise of 20 questions to be answered in 30 minutes. Within the first 20 minutes, majority of the folks will leave. I was the last one to leave, even though I too had finished within the first 20 mins. I was checking and re-checking my work, making sure, I did not make any silly mistakes. It paid off. I got 19 correct answers out of 20. I got only one answer wrong. It was a tricky question, that had mis-leading language and only 2 options (True or False).ar_fabrics said:
The panel of Citizenship officers is truly diverse. I saw Citizenship officers of various sizes, shapes, genders and colours. CIC gets full marks on this one, plus a few bonus points as well ;D
There was one white female, one South Asian male, one South Asian female, One white male, 1 African male and 1 African female. They were interviewing each person for about 30 minutes. There were about 40 or 50 people waiting for their turn. Most were non-white, which shows how much, the immigration pattern has changed over the last few decades.
As a side bar; 50 years ago, European countries like Italy, Spain, Greece, Ireland etc were not that well off and Canada was a far better option for them. Today, those countries have good living standards, so they have less incentive to immigrate to Canada. That's the plain truth as I see it. 20 years from now, if Asian countries like China, India and Philippines improve their living standards (and they are on their way to doing that), immigration from those countries to Canada will come to a grinding halt.
In general, to check your language proficiency, they ask general questions regarding your activities in Canada since landing, they check your residency claims, ask where you live, go through your tax forms etc. Its nothing detailed, just a cursory look at your file. I had 10-12 short duration absences from Canada. I was fully armed with a suitcase full of documents, to offer binding and clinching proof, should CIC have any concerns. I felt like a fool, because the Citizenship officer did not ask for any of my documents. From time to time, I kept offering to show various documents, but she said, it was not necessary. She took photocopies of my passport, PR card and other identification. So the interview was not difficult at all, it was rather pleasant. The officer assigned to me was an experienced, senior-looking, white female, who was very kind and gentle.
Only disappointment - just when everything seems to be working out, after such monumental delay; the citizenship officer told me that my security check had expired few days ago. So it needs to be renewed, and that will take another 8 weeks. So for no good reason, now, my oath will be delayed. It sucks but I will wait it out....I waited so long, what's 2 months after all.
I haven't had any update, but just wanna inform that there are such record-breaking losers like me, probably not to be surpassed by anybody else among other applicants who, like me, applied in Aug 2013 and the application was started to be processed at the end of Oct 2013.
I never got a test date and practically nothing since my application was officially accepted (Oct 25 was started to be processed). The status-check just shows 'in process'. And that's it.
Can't do anything about it - I am as powerless as a miniscule ANT in front of the bureaucratic state machine. Even if I call, I think they will tell that '2 years haven't passed yet. Bye.' So not much to be done.
But just for the sake of informing you dear co-forumers - that's kinda amusing, taking into consideration that I don't have a family or dependents (no complication is there), hadn't left Canada a single time during 3 and a half years of PR status before the application. Never had any problems with anything else - real simple, almost trivial, case. Not a single message from 'the powers that be' so far. Can you top THAT! ;D
I never got a test date and practically nothing since my application was officially accepted (Oct 25 was started to be processed). The status-check just shows 'in process'. And that's it.
Can't do anything about it - I am as powerless as a miniscule ANT in front of the bureaucratic state machine. Even if I call, I think they will tell that '2 years haven't passed yet. Bye.' So not much to be done.
But just for the sake of informing you dear co-forumers - that's kinda amusing, taking into consideration that I don't have a family or dependents (no complication is there), hadn't left Canada a single time during 3 and a half years of PR status before the application. Never had any problems with anything else - real simple, almost trivial, case. Not a single message from 'the powers that be' so far. Can you top THAT! ;D