Paz7

Yeah was quite surprised myself tbh. I am assuming my application complexity (or lack of) or nationality isn't a factor. I am a UK citizen and I guess it's one of the most straight-forward process (for Citizenship from PR status). I also applied recently to renew my PR card (expires Nov 2021) so that I can be ready to travel if / when I need. Not sure if that plays into it also?

jackinthetree

I doubt that, Siouxie but have the greatest respect for you and christmasoompa.

My application is not complex but I've seen many leapfrog ahead. It's just completely unfair. Also, I applied based on the timelines they had advertised up until two months ago. Now they've changed those, but people who applied after me have sometimes whizzed right through.

It's not equitable and despite any experience to the contrary, I would say i'm surprised that anyone would believe it's based on merit or complexity.

with the greatest respect.

jackinthetree

Good for you anyway. Cheers!

jackinthetree

Sure makes me feel unwelcome. I know a few people who applied months after who have already completed their process. Hope yours gets through soon

christmasoompa

You might think that, but you can't know that for sure. Perhaps you share a name with a known criminal and they're having to check you're not that person? Perhaps your brother-in-law has a criminal record you don't know about? Perhaps a visit to a country 20 years ago has triggered an alert? Perhaps your time in Canada hasn't been easily evidenced. Etc, etc. And the people who've 'whizzed right through' have never left Canada since arriving, never travelled anywhere else, have no family to check, and don't share a name with a known criminal so that's why their app has been more straightforward. There are so many things going on behind the scenes and you just can't know why your app has taken longer unfortunately.

There's no point taking it personally, the wheels of government move slowly, but they do move. I see that you're looking at moving to NZ so can see why you want to get your citizenship finalised, but I don't think you could move to NZ anyway with their borders closed, so hopefully it won't hold you up, and you'll receive citizenship before too long.

Good luck.

Siouxie

When did you apply? Again, did you apply ONLINE or by paper? and were you the invited to be a part of the trial for the new online application? Perhaps the people who applied after you and 'whizzed right through' are those that did. I'm surprised anyone would believe it is NOT based on guidelines, complexity and the ability of the applicant to complete and submit all the documentation required - and the lack of processing clerks causing delays!

Have you received an acknowledgement of receipt or checked to see what the status of your application is?

Some people on here have been in process for their citizenship application since 2019! Perhaps you should take a step back and accept that it will be done when it's done, no point in stressing about it

Exactly this

sharkus

A good point about online vs paper.

The status page current displays this at the very top: Then onto the main section:

I know someone who submitted their application online (they were not invited, they happened upon the link to apply online - I am curious as to how people would be randomly selected to apply for citizenship online, how do they know who to invite?) before that date, and they have not received an AOR. As others have said, it is just a waiting game, and there is nothing that can be done about it. It is impressive that some have got through the process extremely quickly. I posted my application on 3rd August 2011, it arrived on August 8th 2011, and they sent out a letter on the same date acknowledging receipt of my application. They started processing the application Feb 1st 2012. They sent out the letter inviting me to the citizenship test on June 15th 2012. Thus it took nearly a year from them acknowledging receipt of the application to sending out the invite for the test. Granted this was quite a few years ago now

jackinthetree

That sounds fair. Thanks, that actually helps me with my stress levels on this topic. Thank you so much.

Re: NZ, yes we are exploring it too. I guess I was thinking that if I wasn't welcome here, that NZ would be a suitable alternative, but your post is really helpful. Yes, I hope it comes through soon. I would be excited to be a Canadian citizen after so long.

jackinthetree

Thanks for sharing your experience, sharkus

Tabindi

To those it might help…
We sent off our paper application in May 2019. Very straight forward family of four. They acknowledged receipt in July 2019 and started processing it in October 2019. Radio silence then until April 2021 when we received our online test invite and interview date. Both were completed by May 20th. Yesterday we finally received our invite to the oath ceremony later this month. A very long road but two years and three months later we are almost there!

jackinthetree

Congratulations Tabindi!

HoopHoop

Leaving during citizenships Application query

Hi all, I've checked the wiki under the above heading and am still a little unclear. My citizenship Grant Application is still in process (has been since I took the Test
in March 2019 !) and if I want to return to the UK for a couple or 3 months, Do I need to inform cic or anyone else ?

Thanks for this forum

DandNHill

Ours is one the ones dragging on and on… hubby has done his fingerprints twice now 🥺
I happened to be speaking to a well known immigration specialist, purely by chance because of my job, who told me that he has clients who have had to do their finger prints four times because it’s taking so long. He suggested I google our names to see if there were any criminals with the same name.
mine came back with the only person being in security but in hubby’s case I found two criminals on page one of google. He also said that the Interpol (I think) system removes all the vowels when running it’s search which means even more variables are possible when it comes to being flagged.
So even if you feel that your application is straight forward there may be external influences affecting it.
I still check online every day to see if there’s an update but I’m not disappointed anymore now I understand a bit better. It’ll happen one day…

OrangeMango

By reading all this, it seems that the process has gotten longer and more bureaucratic and most certainly more expensive than back in 2007 when I did it.

I recall I've sent the application in December, well after my 3 years were over, in January, I received a receipt, and in June I was invited for a test, the ceremony was then in July. Sadly I never new the result of the test, just that I passed. English tests, or fingerprints were not a requirement back then.

I also recall once wanting to contact the CIC regarding a change of address, - I haven't moved, they just made a slight error in the address, but I could never get through to their call center or wherever they handled these kind of things. However the letters always arrived, it was just the number of the flat which they gotten wrong.

Siouxie

Yes you can leave - but you will need to be prepared to return at short notice - and give an address where someone can open the mail (in Canada) to notify you of anything from them (you will have limited time to respond). See the link below

https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpce...qnum=911&top=5