More Realistic Expectations: there are indications, given the surge in applications following the effective date of the 3/5 rule in Bill C-6, that
the currently posted routine timeline, for 12 months,
is LIKELY to INCREASE (even if it takes a long time for the web site to reflect it, given the way IRCC "calculates" processing times). Many with applications currently in process will likely enjoy a faster (but too slow for those with not-so-realistic expectations) timeline, BUT MANY OTHERS should anticipate waiting longer, perhaps significantly longer.
Reminders:
IRCC is a lumbering bureaucracy, yes. But it is also a properly functioning government agency. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Citizenship is for life. For many decades. For many immigrants this will mean for the NEXT HALF CENTURY or so, or more. Some perspective, rather than in-the-moment narcissistic demands for immediate gratification, is warranted. The grant of citizenship is more than a fleeting privilege. Again, it is for LIFE, for the rest of the immigrant's life. So yeah, Canada tends to take some time, a year or more, to sit on an application for this rather great privilege. And will grant it to those qualified, including not only many ingrates but even those with no intent to stay and live in Canada.
Make no mistake, IRCC is a properly functioning bureaucracy. Many tens of thousands of citizenship applicants proceed smoothly through the system year in and year out, and the number for 2018 is quite likely to well exceed 200,000. For a country of 37 million people governing an area larger than other countries with ten or twenty times the population (that is, the human resources to fund as well as do the work), that is a rather remarkable demonstration of functionality, the narcissistic whining of those with unrealistic expectations aside.
Not only is IRCC dealing with the impact of correcting the ramifications of draconian Harper government changes, including currently processing a huge surge in applications beginning last October, it appears there is also a huge tide of overly-anxious applicants who are excessively taxing IRCC's peripheral services like the help centre call lines. Additionally, overall IRCC is on track to process well over a QUARTER MILLION new residents (immigrants and temporary residents) this year (
88,120 in the first quarter alone). And dealing with an increased flow of asylum-seekers (in significant part aggravated by current U.S. policies resulting in many there fleeing farther north). And dealing with continued constriction of funding aggravated by continuing pressure from fiscal conservatives who persistently push for pretending government can simply not do what really needs to be done, or otherwise somehow do it but not pay for it.
For many it may seem like ancient history, but largely due to particularly draconian measures employed by the Harper-era CIC in the period 2012 and 2013, CIC may have failed to process as many as just half the number of applications those years, leading to a backlog that dogged the system right up to the changes last year, and then those changes resulted in a huge surge of new applications. In 2013 alone there were many tens of thousands of applications which had been in process way more than a year and a high percentage of them more than two years. The CIC web site information was still listing
a ROUTINE application processing timeline of TWO YEARS through 2014. Caveat: by then more recent applicants, including me, were going from mailing the application to the oath in one-third, even one-fourth that amount of time; but make no mistake, when I received notice to attend an interview and the oath (received both at the same time, oath scheduled for two days after the interview) for a date barely eight months after making the application, that was a very pleasant surprise. And, in talking to others taking the oath the same day as me, I was further surprised some had timelines of only six months. The so-called routine timeline, at the time, was still TWO YEARS.
I reference that actually quite recent history for two reasons: context and cause.
The import of context is obvious. Complaints about still being in process after little more than 7 months, let alone 3 or 4 months as the thread title intimates, when the published timeline for applications processed BEFORE a huge surge in new applications is 12 months, is clearly unrealistic whining.
The element of causation is a little more complex. The history helps illuminate how things got here, dragging the legacy of Harper-era policies and managing the impact of repairs.
But the latter, the impact of revising the law and rules to implement a more just and immigration-friendly scheme, itself looms large. The current qualifications are significantly more complex than a mere physical presence WHILE a PR approach. Credit for time in Canada prior to becoming a PR dramatically expands not just the calculation of days in Canada, but the scope of circumstances attendant presence in Canada, tending to increase the difficulty of evaluating the declarations of presence made by many applicants.
It is, after all, somewhat easy for IRCC to corroborate claimed presence for periods of time a PR has a fixed and well established household as his or her place of residence AND has full time employment working at a particular location in Canada for a readily recognized Canadian business. In contrast, by allowing credit for time in Canada prior to becoming a permanent resident, that opens the door to assessing credit for time which includes presence in far more transient circumstances with far fewer corroborating facts, including presence during periods of non-residence in Canada.
The hue and cry for credit for time in Canada prior to landing and becoming a PR has a cost. And this is just one aspect of the changes which so many demanded (with good reason) but which tend to complicate the verification of qualification process. Complications mean slower processing. This is what was overwhelmingly demanded.
The point of all this is to reassure the vast majority of applicants there is nothing awry, no reason to think things have gone off the rails, NO REASON TO FEAR THAT IRCC IS FAILING TO PROPERLY FUNCTION, just because nothing has happened with their application for many months. Historically, for many, perhaps for most applicants, the process takes up to and around a full year. For those applying since last October, it appears likely it may take somewhat longer for many. In the meantime it is not likely the narcissistic grumbling will abate. This post is not for them, but for others, for the majority, so as to put the unwarranted caviling in context, to assure the majority there is no cause for concern let alone alarm. The process takes time. That is how it works, how it PROPERLY WORKS.