Hi,
I had applied for citizenship in May 2015,
had judge hearing in oct 2017.
Now my online status has been changed to
- A decision has been taken on your application. You should receive correspondence within the next three months.
I have seen the trend after judge hearing people get decision made and then a line stating oath ceremony.
Anybody with similar experience? I don't want to wait another 3 months just to receive a refusal letter. I might as well reapply if thats the case.
Thanks,
At this stage of the process, with some exceptions (suspended application processing for very specific grounds, for example), what can happen next is fairly well-defined.
If CJ denied approval:
If the Citizenship Judge denied approval the applicant should receive formal notice of that decision PROMPTLY after the decision is made. A week to two weeks perhaps. This notice is mandated by statute. Thus, if it goes much more than two weeks since the DECISION MADE date, and no formal notice of that decision has been received, it is very likely (not quite guaranteed but very likely) the CJ has approved the grant of citizenship.
The applicant does not have a right of appeal, but can make an application for leave to obtain judicial review (which is kind of like an appeal, and is basically an appeal if such leave is granted). This must be done within 30 days. The applicant who has, in the meantime, clearly met the requirements will of course want to seriously consider simply making a new application.
Note, a new application and an appeal can both be pursued at the same time.
IF CJ approved grant of citizenship:
If the Citizenship Judge approved a grant of citizenship, the applicant should either be scheduled to take the oath OR IRCC might appeal the CJ's decision. There is no specific notice to the applicant that the CJ has approved a grant of citizenship. The notice the applicant will receive will be either notice that IRCC has made an appeal, or notice to attend an oath ceremony.
Learning whether IRCC will schedule the oath or appeal can take a lot longer than learning the outcome when a CJ denies approval. Notice that IRCC will appeal should come within six weeks, or a bit more, after the decision made date. Notice of the oath can take several months.
In particular, IRCC has 30 days from when it received the CJ's decision to make its appeal (IRCC does have a right of appeal), and it appears that IRCC ordinarily takes just about all that time to decide. If IRCC elects to appeal, it has to send notice of that to the applicant. In total, this can take from five to six weeks, perhaps a bit longer, after the date the CJ's decision is received by IRCC.
If IRCC does not appeal, it will usually (with some exceptions) schedule the oath. It appears this can take up to six months or so, although usually there is notice of the date for the oath sent within three months or so, sometimes a little longer.
Thus, if the CJ approved the grant of citizenship, the applicant might not know what IRCC will do for six weeks or more. Within six weeks if IRCC is going to appeal. Within three months or so if IRCC will proceed with scheduling the oath.
Obviously, if the CJ granted approval and IRCC is not going to file an appeal, it will be worth waiting for the oath even if it will be many months before the oath is scheduled.
If IRCC appeals (noting that it appears IRCC only appeals a small percentage of cases), the applicant may decide to concede and then proceed to make a new application, or consult with a lawyer and decide to respond to IRCC's appeal. I believe (not sure about this part) that the applicant can also make a new application while the appeal is pending.
Overall:
If no notice of the decision itself is received for two to three weeks after the decision made date, odds are high the CJ approved the decision.
Beyond that, if there is still no notice of what the decision is or any notice of an appeal by IRCC, for another four to five weeks (total six to seven from the decision made date), odds are high that a notice to attend the oath will come, but that can take another two or so months (as much as three to six months after the decision made date).
