It’s official, all ceremonies and tests are cancelled indefinitely

[k.h.p.]

Don’t necessarily share all your enthusiasm. It is hard to say how much of the work will get down if people are working from home. The applications involve a whole bunch of private information and government agencies are not known to adopt new ways of doing things without a lot of planning and still things go wrong. Think things will start off slowly and they will slowly roll out the ceremonies as they slowly get back online. We’ll all have to wait and see. There are bigger issues to deal with so understandably things will take longer.

Agreed completely. I work for a government agency in a role that does not have access to very much personal information of Canadians at all (mostly 'tombstone' info like name and address) and I have to undertake significant procedures and protocols to be able to work from home with information, including having a proper computer setup, verifying that my wife cannot see the screen when I'm working, lockdown protocols for the information if I want to walk four meters to the bathroom...

All that being said, I highly doubt IRCC is in a position to allow any kind of application processing to be done in a "work from home" scenario.

 

[akbardxb]

So all the tests and oath ceremonies are cancelled. Is it still okay to send in the citizenship application? Is IRCC also suspending operations like they suspended Parliament till April 23rd? I was thinking of sending in my application next week.

There is no notification of regular work being suspended by IRCC - it's not a paid holiday for anyone so I wouldn't be surprised, if they work from home to process paper work.

There is no precedent for this kind of **** happening before, so there will be alternate options worked out, like the Universities moving to online lectures. Why would you want to hold back your application?

 

[Doda]

So all the tests and oath ceremonies are cancelled. Is it still okay to send in the citizenship application? Is IRCC also suspending operations like they suspended Parliament till April 23rd? I was thinking of sending in my application next week.

No, processing is going normal.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

There is no notification of regular work being suspended by IRCC - it's not a paid holiday for anyone so I wouldn't be surprised, if they work from home to process paper work.

There is no precedent for this kind of **** happening before, so there will be alternate options worked out, like the Universities moving to online lectures. Why would you want to hold back your application?

It isn't as simple as universities putting classes online. As already mentioned, there are extremely strict procedures required to be able to work with confidential, protected information outside of a secure office. They can't just take applications home to work.

 

[akbardxb]

It isn't as simple as universities putting classes online. As already mentioned, there are extremely strict procedures required to be able to work with confidential, protected information outside of a secure office. They can't just take applications home to work.

Sure, it's not simple, but neither is this situation, hence alternatives will be found. It is difficult to imagine that business will come to a grinding halt. It's not me who is saying this, the experts are talking about how 2020 will be a defining year for tele-commuting.
Who knows, maybe it is already being discussed!

 

[Mush1981]

Did anyone receive an e mail confirmation or cancellation notification for already scheduled oath ceremonies??

 

[skydiving]

Did anyone receive an e mail confirmation or cancellation notification for already scheduled oath ceremonies??

Its the weekend now man

 

[ciscoccie]

Did anyone receive an e mail confirmation or cancellation notification for already scheduled oath ceremonies??

My oath was scheduled and I got following email this morning.

CANCELLATION OF KNOWLEDGE TESTING/ RETESTING EVENTS AND CEREMONIES

As a precautionary measure in line with prevention efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19 taking place across Canada, and out of consideration for the health and safety of our clients and employees, we are temporarily cancelling all citizenship testing and retesting events as well as all citizenship ceremonies as of March 14, 2020 until further notice. Events will be rescheduled in the near future.

Your scheduled event has been cancelled. You will be provided with a new date/time in the upcoming weeks. Please contact us if you feel your case is urgent at IRCC.Rescheduling-RVreporteCOVID.IRCC@cic.gc.ca.

We will consider urgent processing on a case by case basis.

We thank you for your understanding.

Please visit our website for updates https://www.canada.ca/en/services/immigration-citizenship.html

 

[sydcarton]

My oath was scheduled and I got following email this morning.

CANCELLATION OF KNOWLEDGE TESTING/ RETESTING EVENTS AND CEREMONIES

As a precautionary measure in line with prevention efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19 taking place across Canada, and out of consideration for the health and safety of our clients and employees, we are temporarily cancelling all citizenship testing and retesting events as well as all citizenship ceremonies as of March 14, 2020 until further notice. Events will be rescheduled in the near future.

Your scheduled event has been cancelled. You will be provided with a new date/time in the upcoming weeks. Please contact us if you feel your case is urgent at IRCC.Rescheduling-RVreporteCOVID.IRCC@cic.gc.ca.

We will consider urgent processing on a case by case basis.

We thank you for your understanding.

Please visit our website for updates https://www.canada.ca/en/services/immigration-citizenship.html

Hi, when was your oath scheduled for?

 

[ciscoccie]

Hi, when was your oath scheduled for?

19th March.

 

[canuck78]

Sure, it's not simple, but neither is this situation, hence alternatives will be found. It is difficult to imagine that business will come to a grinding halt. It's not me who is saying this, the experts are talking about how 2020 will be a defining year for tele-commuting.
Who knows, maybe it is already being discussed!

The alternatives will likely be increased delays in processing citizenship applications. People are able to access almost everything as PRs no no huge rush.

 

[lulykibuly]

It is really unfortunate and nobody knows when will this virus settle...may be the whole year or next 2 years...