Dear depnabill, please share your valuable comments. I applied for citizenship on December 18, 2017 and I passed my test and interview on june 20, 2018. During citizenship interview, the immigration officer asked to provide the police character certificate within 30 days which was missing in my file and the same was arranged from my home country and provided to cic local office within due time. But since then I haven't heard any thing from CIC Canada. I applied GCMS notes through ATIP on Feb 22, 2019 which were received within four weeks. I was astonished to see that my file was put on hold by the instructions of another immigration office that is not my local office. Is it normal? Please share your experience and guide me what should I do? Thanks.
To be clear, much of what I post is NOT based on personal experience, even though a number of personal experiences do help me put other sources of information into perspective. My observations derive from many sources, ranging from following reports in this forum (and at times over the course of more than a decade, reports in other similar forums . . . I was a moderator at a similar forum for a number of years) to what is disclosed about actual cases in officially published decisions (including IAD, RPD, and Federal Court decisions), in conjunction with sources about the rules, policies, and practices such as PDIs (Program Delivery Instructions), other IRCC and CBSA information available online, and this includes the official statutes and regulations, and legacy sources like older Operational Manuals and Operational Bulletins . . . and to a lesser extent these days but a very valuable source of information in the past, CIC (before name change to IRCC) responses to numerous ATI requests (which are not the same as the ATIP requests pursuant to which clients/applicants obtain a copy of their personal records).
BUT I am nonetheless a layperson outsider with no more access to information about these matters than any other PR or resident of Canada . . . so I am very much
NOT an expert even though I have been researching and following a few particular issues for a rather long while now. I am merely a hobbyist of sorts, with what most might think a rather odd hobby, but also a background and interests which can partially explain why.
WHICH is me taking the long way around to saying I DO NOT KNOW what is going on in your case. If you are confident there is a "hold" it may be time to at least consult with a competent immigration lawyer with citizenship case experience.
There are numerous reasons why a citizenship application might be put on hold, or "suspended," pending inquiries or investigation or determination of a referral to another agency, so many so that it would be blind speculation to guess what might be going on. That said, YOU should have some idea of the possible reason . . . YOU know your facts.
For example, one of the reasons for suspending processing of a citizenship application I have seen multiple discussions about lately has to do ONLY with persons who became a PR in the refugee or protected person class. If IRCC perceives reason to apprehend the citizenship applicant is someone with protected person status who has reavailed himself or herself of home country protection (which is presumed if the individual obtained a home country passport), that typically results in a referral to CBSA to investigate whether to make an application for cessation of protected person status (if that happens, not only is the citizenship application denied, the individual's PR status is automatically, as a matter of law, terminated). Pending the investigation by CBSA, IRCC typically suspends processing the citizenship application. BUT this only arises if the citizenship applicant is (1) a refugee or protected person, and (2) has obtained a home country passport or traveled to the home country. I have NO clue what your background is. My guess is this is NOT applicable to you but that is just a guess. This is just ONE example of multiple scenarios or circumstances which might be behind a "hold" or "suspending" processing.
There is a fair chance that
@Ottawan's observation, in another topic where you have posted about this, explains what is happening.
Most likely Scarborough CPCD put it on hold. They're probably waiting for your CSIS security review.
This is indeed one of the more likely possibilities
BUT that is still largely speculation. Another is an investigation for misrepresentation (which in addition to representations made in the citizenship application process, can be about previous transactions with CIC, IRCC, or CBSA).
In a broad, general sense, it appears the most common reasons for a hold, or for suspending processing, are inquiries, referrals, or investigations related to inadmissibility or potential prohibitions, ranging from misrepresentation to criminality or security issues. BUT that is very broad, far too general to illuminate what is actually going on in any particular individual case.
Superficially this might appear to be related to the request for a police clearance from your home country. BUT if your police certificate shows NO criminal charges or convictions, this may be just a coincidence. (Here again YOU know your facts, so you should have a fair idea whether you have some history that might trigger criminality or security concerns.)
Which leads back to it being time to see a LAWYER. A lawyer, not a consultant. You want to be in a formal attorney-client relationship (so yes, a paid for consultation, not one of those worthless free consultation, or a casual telephone consultation) so you can obtain advice based on a full disclosure of all potentially relevant facts and circumstances in CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS in the context of a lawyer-client relationship.
We could go digging into some of the facts here, and perhaps narrow the scope of speculation some. You could confirm, for example, that you are not a PR-refugee so as to exclude the possibility this is a hold pending CBSA inquiries into potential reavailment and cessation of protected person status. You could confirm there is no prospect this is about possible misrepresentation related to obtaining PR through a provincial sponsorship program.
And so on. But that would involve a lot of
spinning-the-wheels with little prospect of gaining any real traction. AND it would be foolish to divulge enough personal details here to come anywhere near close to narrowing down what the underlying issue might be . . . and no one here (including me) can be relied upon to offer expert opinion or advice. (Another
taking-the-long-way-round to repeating: probably time to see a lawyer.)
ALL THAT SAID . . . if you are confident there should be NO reason for concern about your case, no misrepresentations in your immigration history or citizenship application, no reason for there to be any criminality or security issues, no reason for IRCC to apprehend you are involved in residency or presence fraud, and so on, THEN you should be able to relax and WAIT and the process should sort itself out and somewhat soon (tomorrow, maybe, or in a number of months) be back on track, with the oath ceremony the next step (in a few weeks or several months or so). Again, YOU KNOW YOUR FACTS. You should be able to judge, for yourself, whether there is a potentially serious issue lurking in your case. Whether there is any potential inadmissibility, misrepresentation, prohibition, criminality, or security issue lurking in your background or more recent circumstances.
IMPORTANT GENERAL OBSERVATION:
Your situation illustrates some EXCEPTIONS to some of my observations in previous posts above and as commonly posted in other topics.
ATIP application for copy of GCMS report:
The vast majority of ATIP applications for copies of personal records discussed in this forum are FRIVOLOUS . . . unnecessary and unlikely to obtain any useful information. BUT as I usually express, as a caveat, there are exceptions. Your situation is one. Given the lapse in time since the test, interview, and submission of the police certificate, it was prudent to make the ATIP application to at least confirm the status of the application. Now you are aware the application is on hold, and you can assess whether, based on what YOU KNOW about YOUR background, YOUR facts, if it is OK to continue waiting, to let the process sort itself out and get back on track . . . OR, SEE A LAWYER as I have discussed above.
Pending formal background screening clearances:
Your situation also, POSSIBLY (not for sure, but possibly) illustrates an exception to what I describe in previous posts about applications waiting in queue and it NOT really being about waiting for either the RCMP or CSIS background clearance. SOMETIMES there is a delay, and potentially a very long delay, in getting the formal RCMP or CSIS background clearance. This is a possible reason why your application is on hold. (But again, just one possibility among many.)
CSIS background delays, if there really is a delay in getting the CSIS clearance, can range from weeks or months to very, very long periods of time, sometimes for YEARS . . . with little or no recourse for the applicant.
