Who must meet knowledge of Canada and language ability requirements:
The changes to the Citizenship Act related to the language and knowledge requirements apply to applications already received by IRCC as well as new applications.
Recognizing that tweets are not an official source (albeit of course some are from a reliable source), I am posting to affirm that anyone who was 55 or older when they applied, including any who already applied and whose application is still pending, will be exempt from the language and knowledge of Canada requirements . . . once the new rules come into force, presumably October 11.
Once the applicable provisions come into force, for both PENDING applications and future applications, who must meet knowledge of Canada and language ability requirements will depend on the applicant's age at the time the application is made, the requirements applying to those applicants who are 18 or older and less than 55 at the time the application was made.
In particular, the new provisions, as prescribed in Section 1(6) in Bill C-6, will govern
ALL applications made after June 11, 2015 (there are some applications made prior to June 11, 2015 still in process, and there are separate provisions governing the language and knowledge of Canada requirements for those applicants, pursuant to Bill C-24 transitional provisions, in effect preserving the pre-Bill C-24 exemption for those under 18 and over 54 applying prior to June 11, 2015).
This is prescribed by
Section 18 in Bill C-6, which provides that pending applications (made after June 11, 2015) will be governed by the language and knowledge of Canada requirements
as enacted by Bill C-6.
Here is the actual language of Section 18 in Bill C-6 (with some emphasis added):
18 Paragraphs 5(1)(d) and (e) of the Citizenship Act, as enacted by subsection 1(6), apply to a person whose application for citizenship was made on or after June 11, 2015 but before the day on which that subsection comes into force and has not been finally disposed of before the day on which that subsection comes into force.
The structure of Section 18 in Bill C-6 is a bit convoluted, but the key elements are:
-- new version of 5(1)(d),(e) in the
Citizenship Act (version enacted by Bill C-6 Section 1(6)) applies to applications
-- -- made after June 11, 2015 and
-- -- made before October 11 (substituting October 11 for reference to the day Bill C-6 Section 1(6) comes into force)
-- -- and still pending (that is, not yet finalized before October 11)
It is not within the power of IRCC to ignore the law. They must test people over 54 if they applied before oct 11. The law says so. Unless I misread the bill, I invite everyone to read sections 17, 17.1 and 18 of the bill.
Section 18 is apparently the culprit.
It is all too easy to get tangled sideways when trying to navigate transitional provisions still subject to uncertain coming into force contingencies. Transitional provisions, in particular, are notoriously difficult to unravel until some of the other pieces in the puzzle are in place, and even then the contingent cross-references can be tricky to navigate. Once significant parts of the overall puzzle have been largely solved (a reliable tweet can help), so to say, it may look like it should have been easy. It almost never was. More than occasionally the best efforts of those drafting the legislation are undermined by tangled conditionals failing to accommodate all the angles, and subsequent legislation is necessary to fix the law to meet the legislative intention. Bill C-6 actually includes this kind of fix for a mistake in the transitional provisions in Bill C-24 . . . this is Section 24 in Bill C-6, fixing a gap in the applicability of prohibitions left by the transitional provisions in Bill C-24.