marcher said:
There is the argument that those of us who became PRs when the 3/5 Rule was in place, were technically lied to by having to fulfill the 4/6 rule now.
My turn.
When was there a 3/5 rule?
I am sure you meant to refer to the 3/4 rule that was applicable for decades and up to June 11, 2015.
In any event, anyone who was a PR before notice was given that the Conservatives planned to change the rules could have easily met the 3/4 rule and applied before the change. So the fact that the law changed should not have caught anyone by surprise unless they were not paying attention or otherwise failed to do their homework.
In particular, the Conservatives promised to make the changes during their election campaign in the summer of
2011 and repeatedly promised to actually implement such changes by the end of 2014, after initially promising to implement them by December 2013. Anyone who was a PR in the summer of 2011 could have easily met the 3/4 rule by the end of 2014 (by summer of 2014 if they did not travel abroad). At the latest, there were quite specific promises being made before the summer of 2012, including for example a published account of then CIC Minister Jason Kenney's remarks to a group of immigration lawyers. While the exact scope of more stringent requirements were not publicly specified until February 2014, it was clear that the Conservative government planned to increase minimum presence requirements for citizenship.
I recall this in detail since I initially met the then existing eligibility requirements by the end of 2011, and many participants in multiple forums like this one repeatedly advised me to get my application filed before the government's proposed changes would take effect. I was not worried since I understood that any change to increase the presence requirement would take many months, at the least, to become law and take effect. I would have time to apply before the changes took effect. In the meantime, I had personal reasons for delaying making my application. More than a few forum participants essentially argued I was taking a big risk of being caught by a sudden increase in the presence requirement. I elected to wait until summer of 2013 to apply.
The only surprise was that it would take another two years still for the Conservatives to actually implement the longer presence requirement.
Bottomline: anyone who became a PR before June 2012 had notice (if they did even a minimal amount of homework)
that requirement changes were coming, and had time to qualify and apply for citizenship under the 3/4 rule. Anyone who became a PR after May 2012, had notice (if they did even a minimal amount of homework)
the presence requirements were changing.
