Write to your MP!
 

The amount of time it's taking to process LPR card renewals and citizenship applications has reached absurd proportions, I urge you all to complain to your MP about it. Essentially as LPRs we're being disenfranchised through bureaucratic slowness, which is wrong and I have a feeling it might violate Charter Rights because we're being denied the right to vote. Everything takes a reasonable time to do but six months plus for a PR card renewal and a year and a half (if you're lucky) for citizenship is unfair.

Couple of points to make:

PR cards are valid for ten years in the US;
Citizenship applications in the US are averaging around six months at present (although they are more expensive, $675, but at least they actually process them, $200 for nothing is more expensive imv!)

Re: Write to your MP!
 

Is it because Canada is like a revolving door? You are not wanted here anymore once you're penniless after spending all your savings while trying unsuccessfully to settle down here? Then you're shown the door.... It takes a year and a half after you applied for citizenship? Really? And you have to stay in Canada until you hear from them?

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Denying our rights? really? That's a stretch isn't it?

I don't see what the US has to do with it. Different country, different system, blah blah.

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It's a basis for comparison.

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I'm not fussed.

Yeah, it takes a long time, whatever. Overall my immigration experience has been pretty straight forward, unlike some friends who have tried to go to the US. I don't see the point in comparing.

$675 is a lot. I prefer cheaper.

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If they're taking an unreasonably long time to process applications (which by any reasonable standard, they are) then you are being denied your rights.

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Not really a logical comparison though I suspect.

Unfortunately immigration is a low budget priority. Im broadly sympathetic, but cant in my own mind justify puting additional resources into processing the paperwork when government spending on things like healthcare etc is under pressure. PR cards and citizenship cards will come eventually.

I dont buy this bleeding the immigrant dry thing either, the majority of those posting here seem to be doing OK after the initial readjustment phase, and if you want to be a citizen, why should it be made easy for you to leave before it comes through? You can still travel as a PR, but your home base should rightly remain in canada if you wish to be a citizen. Thats my 2c anyway. Its frustrating if you are affected, but as a tax payer I dont want to throw more money at it.

Re: Write to your MP!
 

What's a 'reasonable standard" when it comes to government bureaucracy? I don't know how you can measure that. Maybe they take a long time because they're more thorough than the US.

not that I know or care, really, but I don't see how it can be quantified. I mean, it's bureaucracy.

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Actually this is better than my post.

I agree.

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You dont have that right until you are a citizen, so its a catch 22. They are not denying you the right to vote, as you are not a citizen. And there is no right to Citizenship as a PR, its a privileged. Hey ho.

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Citizenship is not a right.

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I got my PR a month ago and I already feel like a prisoner in my home. I can't imagine myself here waiting for four more years to get my citizenship. I'm already looking for a way to move back to the States, mainly because there are no real jobs in my field. I have been here for three years. So after two years I'm eligible for citizenship. But then I have to wait for another two years for my citizenship? Wow, depressing. I was looking forward to getting a TN visa after two years. Oh shit, I have to wait for another two years!

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Hi

So in other words, Canada was just a stepping stone to get your PR and then citizenship so you can apply for a TN visa to work in the US? You really had no intention to make Canada your home, now did you?

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No, I have plenty of intention to make CA my home, when I retire, like many other immigrants.

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So if you dont like canada and how its going, why would you waste your time and money on applying for citizenship?:confused:

Two years is a long time anyway, enought time to change your mind about a place anyway. Happily employed immigrant goes a long way towards being a happy immigrant. You wouldnt be the first to finaly land a decent job and change your mind about the immigrant experience in Canada. Good luck!

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CAnada or CAlifornia:confused:

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If a Canadian wrote to my MP in England demanding stuff I'd expect my MP to chuck his letter in the bin.


I wouldn't expect anything different the other way round.


immigration is their ball and they can play with it however they see fit.

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CANADA. Any difference? People here often say Vancouver is like a part of the US rather than Canada, I mean, culturally

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Same as the rest of us have been through. Cannot say I ever felt trapped or that bothered by the process.

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I would not say like many, a few maybe.

So you plan to work, pay taxes and contribute to the US economy, then retire to Canada and use the health care system here :rolleyes:

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Exactly. I realized there's not a high chance I'll make any big money in my life. If I do, I'll definitely stay in the US. Make some money, and then come back and retire in CA.

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In that case, enjoy your 4 years' wait.

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Why would you want to retire to Canada?:confused: The majority of Canadians dream of retiring somewhere a lot warmer. At least over the winter anyway...

Dont tell me you just want to exploit the health care provision:rolleyes:

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Yeah, I'm sliding into post PR depression.

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:bye bye smilie:

:see ya later smilie:

:bye bye smilie:

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I've been here 15+years and never heard that. Vancouver is thankfully nothing like part of the US, culturally or otherwise.

If I were you I'd quit now and head to CA

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actually that's quite funny.

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Whatever, man. I picked it up here. I am reading all the threads in the past ten years to learn more about the CA system. By the way, I'm not a quitter.

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I lived in Florida. Didn't like the weather. And a lot of crime. If you don't have much money, CA is a better place to retire.

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Nothing contagious I hope?

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It's actually a better place to live in general if you don't have much money and have kids (imo).

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It kind of is... the Citizenship Act says "shall grant", not "may grant".

The government is entitled to a reasonable period of time to determine whether an applicant meets the requirements. There are cases where the Federal Court has found a delay to be unreasonable and ordered the government to get on with it.

Note that the OP's idea of reasonable might not be the same as the courts'. The cases I can find involve delays of several years.

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But you wait longer for citizenship in the US (at least those not married to citizens) - 5 years instead of three, and time before permanent residence is ignored instead of credited at 50%.

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TN is really not all that great a visa/status for anything other than a short term assignment. You should consider yourself lucky to have permanent residence in Canada - why not try to make a success of living in Canada?

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MPs only represent voters don't they?

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Constitutionally, an MP should represent the whole constituency (riding in Canadian English). However this is an unwritten convention.

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Yeah I agree. I heard people say H1B is better TN.

This is sort of cliche. No need to tell any PR s/he needs to feel this way or that way.

Trying to learn the system, but the more I learn about it the more I feel the door is closed to me. It doesn't matter whether I become a PR or a citizen. These lazy incompetent but overly patriotic Canadians are running my workplace into the ground. Canadian protectionism is ruining it. It's like inbreeding of a family of morons.

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They should count themselves lucky you came along to put them right, ungrateful gits! If I were you I'd go and put them straight.

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Cant say Ive seen any protectionism against PRs, assuming you have the relevant recognised qualifications.

There is some resistance against having to get a TWP, which I figure is only natural, but in my experience if a qualified candidates has PR no one could care less if they were Canadian citizens or not, especially if they already have had some canadian employer take a chance on them in the past.


Maybe your negative attitude isnt helping your cause? Something near 20% of all canadian residents are immigrants, born overseas. In Ontario its over 25%. If you factor in 1st generation canadians (those with immigrant parents) its more like 50% of the population, so this idea that "Canadians" are prejudiced against PRs seems unlikely to withstand too thorough an examination!

When you look at the stats unemployment for recent arrived immigrants is higher than the average, but that easily explained by the absence of the qualifications that canadian employers are expecting to see.

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It also seems a superior attitude, which will not win any friends or respect in the workplace.