Vancouver: My incredibly fast application

[Michels]

Congratulations on your citizenship and the amazing timeline! It's pretty extraordinary. To give some context though, citizenship has sped up dramatically since the "bad old days" experienced by those who applied in 2010, 2011, 2012, etc. This has a lot to do with building support for the new citizenship bill (the first day that the first provisions went into force, CIC sent out a press release asserting, impossibly, the faster timelines as evidence that the cit bill was "already working!" even though it had only be in effect for about 20 minutes and wasn't in effect when the statistics and timelines were compiled.)

Faster timelines have far more to do with the special funding of $44 million for 2013-2014, that was held until 2014, (i.e. right before the new citizenship bill.)
Speaking from some hardwon experience here, this is the bare minimum of behaviors and not a guarantee of exceptionally fast processing times or respectful treatment by the CIC. The biggest variables for timelines are agency budgets and political will. Right now is a great and lucky time to apply because there is both.

For this government citizenship is political. CIC quite consciously created a massive delay in the run up to the new citizenship bill. And then they solved it. It's very good politics: Make a problem to solve a problem. But it's bad civics: one person's rights is another's political tool.

I'm glad things are getting faster now, but I'm still bitter at how my citizenship and my voting rights were withheld without explanation or justification for years on end. It's depressing to have one's rights toyed with (and then bestowed with a "oh yeah, I guess this whole RQ and delay was never even necessary") for the political gain of some dudebros trying to look tough.

Eileenf .. totally agre, politically motivated by excellence!
One thing I know now where I will use my voting power... Canadians are not stupid to be fooled around!

 

[quickyvr]

quickvr, congrats. You are really lucky. Would you share a few more details with us :

1)Did you have any travels in the qualifying period?
2)What was your original citizenship?
3)How long have you been in Canada as a PR, prior to applying?

I understand faster processing may apply to those if you didn't travel, been a PR for a long time.

1/ Yes. I did a lot of traveling, and wrote a cover letter saying the traveling was in support of Canada. I partner with various CIDA (now part of FA)
2/ India.
3/ Just over 4 years. Did not live here much in year 1.

Few usefulquestions
How many physical presence days did you have when you applied?
Did you send documents other than document required by CIC? Or what document did you send to support your application? (CBSA travel report or USA travel report)?

1097 days. Yes, I sent in all my passport photo copies, and letter from the various agencies supporting that I had to leave to support my job. Also sent in bills, CC statements, etc.

Congratulations if this post is true... but I highly doubt this is a real case. Usually it takes 1-2 months to get the acknowledge letter from CIC and more than 3 months to move to local office.

Why would I lie mate? I copied and pasted from the CIC portal. Look, I am here to share my experience and this is a great week. I am not going to respond to negativity for pointing out that the people at CIC were actually great.

 

[ingegarcia]

I do apologize if I offended you in any way. You most and should be really happy and I should not take that away.

Why would I lie mate? I copied and pasted from the CIC portal. Look, I am here to share my experience and this is a great week. I am not going to respond to negativity for pointing out that the people at CIC were actually great.

 

[beauhoe]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say that I have actually been impressed by CIC's processing of my application, and I must give them kudos where they deserve. I have heard so much negative stuff here, so wanted to share my incredible journey. I did not use any lawyer and actually had several day trips in and out of the country, as well as over 40 other trips for work as a management consultant. As long as you document everything, and follow the rules, CIC is not there to get you.

A recap of my timing:

+ We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on August 7, 2014.

+ We sent you a letter acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on August 7, 2014. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

+ We started processing your application on August 15, 2014.

+ We sent you a notice on October 7, 2014 to appear and write the citizenship test on November 6, 2014 at 10:05 AM. The notice you will receive by mail will be your official confirmation of your appointment. If you have not received this notice prior to the date of your scheduled appointment, please contact us.

+ We sent you a notice on November 12, 2014 to appear and take the oath of citizenship at the citizenship ceremony to be held on November 24, 2014 at 1:30 PM. The notice you will receive by mail will be your official confirmation of your appointment. If you have not received this notice prior to the date of your scheduled appointment, please contact us.

I am now a proud Canadian citizen. Good luck to everyone else with the process.

Best.

Congratulations! And thank you for sharing this positive outcome of your journey.
If this is true, let us encourage CIC to replicate this model again and again and again.

 

[Pel]

Congratulations! And thank you for sharing this positive outcome of your journey.
If this is true, let us encourage CIC to replicate this model again and again and again.

not gonna happen, unless you're with CIDA

 

[bambino]

I totally agree with eileenf's points above that citizenship became a political tool now; sadly, though.
Glad to see things getting faster now.

Anyone who were here long enough, might have witnessed the citizenship process slowing down since 2007/2008, then to a crawling by 2010 and almost to a halt by 2012. The backlog pile up was the result of this catastrophe. Now I view this backlog creation as a purposeful groundwork done through years in preparation for the proposed citizenship bill. See the CIC sources itself speaking truth in following stats; numbers of new citizens from previous years:

2013 - 129,027
2012 - 113,111
2011 - 181,288
2010 - 143,595
2009 - 156,342
2008 - 176,567
2007 - 199,866

Source:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/data-release/2012-Q4/index.asp
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/data-release/2014-Q1/index.asp
Note: slight variation in final numbers are found in cic published data each year

Just a side note: I personally know of another whole family application completed less than OP's timeline.

If you go back a bit further, there were around 260,000 applications approved in 2006.

Actually, until the Conservatives took power, the number of applications processed equaled the backlog/inventory from the previous year. So basically, if there was an increase in applications, CIC allocated the necessary resources in order to process them within a year. Boy did that change from 2007 forward!

It really irks me that the Conservatives are now putting on this show of "fixing" a problem that was a result of their willful and deliberate actions.

Anyway, congrats to the OP. But I have to wonder what sense it makes to have someone in Edmonton wait 25 months just to be scheduled for the test (me), while someone in Vancouver goes through the entire process in a little over three months.

 

[SinghLovCan]

1/ Yes. I did a lot of traveling, and wrote a cover letter saying the traveling was in support of Canada. I partner with various CIDA (now part of FA)

So what is CIDA? I am happy for you. Having reached the end of the journey is such a pleasure.

 

[SinghLovCan]

If you go back a bit further, there were around 260,000 applications approved in 2006.

Actually, until the Conservatives took power, the number of applications processed equaled the backlog/inventory from the previous year. So basically, if there was an increase in applications, CIC allocated the necessary resources in order to process them within a year. Boy did that change from 2007 forward!

It really irks me that the Conservatives are now putting on this show of "fixing" a problem that was a result of their willful and deliberate actions.

Anyway, congrats to the OP. But I have to wonder what sense it makes to have someone in Edmonton wait 25 months just to be scheduled for the test (me), while someone in Vancouver goes through the entire process in a little over three months.

So what is the processing time going to be after the elections? When are the elections and which party has chance of winning?

 

[bambino]

So what is the processing time going to be after the elections? When are the elections and which party has chance of winning?

It's too early to tell. It is a fact, however, that the Conservatives won a number of ridings (particularly in the GTA) thanks to the immigrant vote which led to their getting a majority government last time round. I am convinced that is the reason why it takes mere months for applications to be processed in many local offices in Ontario and other "battleground" areas, and years in the Prairies, where the election results will not be affected by people like us. But it may come back to bite them in the ass because there have been reports that Trudeau is polling quite well among immigrants.

The Conservatives will no doubt roll out other vote-getting/buying schemes as the elections grow nearer. They've already started with the income splitting, child benefits, etc.

 

[arambi]

1/ Yes. I did a lot of traveling, and wrote a cover letter saying the traveling was in support of Canada. I partner with various CIDA (now part of FA)
2/ India.
3/ Just over 4 years. Did not live here much in year 1.

1097 days. Yes, I sent in all my passport photo copies, and letter from the various agencies supporting that I had to leave to support my job. Also sent in bills, CC statements, etc.

Why would I lie mate? I copied and pasted from the CIC portal. Look, I am here to share my experience and this is a great week. I am not going to respond to negativity for pointing out that the people at CIC were actually great.

Thanks very much for sharing these details. It's good to know that extra supporting docs may help (or at least will not cause any harm)

 

[BLT]

It's too early to tell. It is a fact, however, that the Conservatives won a number of ridings (particularly in the GTA) thanks to the immigrant vote which led to their getting a majority government last time round. I am convinced that is the reason why it takes mere months for applications to be processed in many local offices in Ontario and other "battleground" areas, and years in the Prairies, where the election results will not be affected by people like us. But it may come back to bite them in the ass because there have been reports that Trudeau is polling quite well among immigrants.

The Conservatives will no doubt roll out other vote-getting/buying schemes as the elections grow nearer. They've already started with the income splitting, child benefits, etc.

Is it true that the conservative is more anti-immigrant, especially when the election is over?

 

[arambi]

Is it true that the conservative is more anti-immigrant, especially when the election is over?

Conservatives, Republicans and other right wing political movements around the world ( not just in Canada) have historically been more anti-immigrants, xenophobe, and racist than other political movements (democrats, liberals, or centrists)

 

[BLT]

Conservatives, Republicans and other right wing political movements around the world ( not just in Canada) have historically been more anti-immigrants, xenophobe, and racist than other political movements (democrats, liberals, or centrists)

Then immigrants must be anti-conservative too.

 

[beauhoe]

Then immigrants must be anti-conservative too.

Well said!

 

[touché]

Congratulations on your citizenship and the amazing timeline! It's pretty extraordinary. To give some context though, citizenship has sped up dramatically since the "bad old days" experienced by those who applied in 2010, 2011, 2012, etc. This has a lot to do with building support for the new citizenship bill (the first day that the first provisions went into force, CIC sent out a press release asserting, impossibly, the faster timelines as evidence that the cit bill was "already working!" even though it had only be in effect for about 20 minutes and wasn't in effect when the statistics and timelines were compiled.)

Faster timelines have far more to do with the special funding of $44 million for 2013-2014, that was held until 2014, (i.e. right before the new citizenship bill.)
Speaking from some hardwon experience here, this is the bare minimum of behaviors and not a guarantee of exceptionally fast processing times or respectful treatment by the CIC. The biggest variables for timelines are agency budgets and political will. Right now is a great and lucky time to apply because there is both.

For this government citizenship is political. CIC quite consciously created a massive delay in the run up to the new citizenship bill. And then they solved it. It's very good politics: Make a problem to solve a problem. But it's bad civics: one person's rights is another's political tool.

I'm glad things are getting faster now, but I'm still bitter at how my citizenship and my voting rights were withheld without explanation or justification for years on end. It's depressing to have one's rights toyed with (and then bestowed with a "oh yeah, I guess this whole RQ and delay was never even necessary") for the political gain of some dudebros trying to look tough.

Spot on eileenf…It's all optics and politics. Anything/anyone's fair game. Impeccable timing for improved citizenship application timelines, reform, 2015 tax breaks (the list is endless).