Wrote to IRCC:
Dear Minister Fraser,
I write to express my concerns about the delay in dispatching citizenship certificates to applicants who have completed virtual citizenship oath ceremonies across the domestic offices in Canada.
The expected timeline stated in the oath instruction letter is 2-4 weeks after oath taking. However, there are more and more people having to wait anxiously for longer, especially from the Calgary region. Some even waited for months, having to contact MPs, being stressed out before they got the paper that they are entitled to receive right after becoming citizens.
Back then when citizenship ceremonies were hosted in-person at IRCC local offices, people would receive their certificates right after taking the oath. Within 24 hours, they were able to apply for a Canadian passport and have access to freedom of travel available to all Canadian citizens. Now after the ceremony has moved into virtual format, the wait time plus postal delay is much longer. New citizens are required to cut their PR cards at the event, yet until the physical certificate is in hand, they are not provided with any means to travel outside of Canada if an urgent travel warrants. This adds another layer of stress after an awfully long delay for citizenship processing due to COVID. On the legal side, I wonder if limiting the freedom of travel of citizens substantially due to your department’s administrative delay, is unconstitutional.
So here is my suggestion:
1. Please work with your local offices to make sure certificates are prepared in advance, and can be mailed out right after the Oath ceremonies without delay. There is no reason it has to be processed in 2-4 weeks when people have already become citizens. Some offices may be understaffed due to the pandemic restrictions but this is a task that cannot be avoided
2. Please explore options to digitize citizenship certificates, meaning to send the confirmation of citizenship by email and people should be able to apply for a passport with that confirmation or a digital proof of their citizenship. Passport Canada is a federal program managed by IRCC and I do not see why the two systems cannot communicate to each other. I do not understand why passport applications MUST come with the original citizenship certificate. There are ways for you to check and you certainly do not rely on a piece of paper to confirm one’s citizenship. So why bother with paper, which adds more stress for new citizens and workload for your staff?
I hope you can take some time to review my suggestion and see if changes can be made right away. As reported many times by the media (CBC, The Star, etc), the citizenship processing has been heavily impacted by the pandemic over the past two years - many have been suffering from the long wait already. The last step in this process should be the easiest part for your staff, and also an opportunity to make new citizens be assured their journey with IRCC is over in a smooth way.
Very best regards,