Online citizenship test

[adey786]

Hi,
Is there any cumulative data of how many people have been invited for online tests so far? Ours was scheduled for April 16th 2020 and then cancelled, I did raise a web form months ago and they answered that they will inform me when it resumes, nothing so far.

Good luck send another web form request.

Btw I was wondering if admin can have some insight.

My observation is as follows: Browsing the 2019 list, I can see only less than 50 applicants have received online test invite. Out of those, I believe very few - may be less than 10 applicants- were the ones whose first test was scheduled before pandemic.

 

[Lex2019]

Good luck send another web form request.

Btw I was wondering if admin can have some insight.

My observation is as follows: Browsing the 2019 list, I can see only less than 50 applicants have received online test invite. Out of those, I believe very few - may be less than 10 applicants- were the ones whose first test was scheduled before pandemic.

Someone at some point tried to start, well actually put together, a spreadsheet for on-line tests, that ahs been buried in other threads, thus I don't think people are adding in their data to it. Otherwise admins would probably have to do the same amount of work by manually going through individual lines for every month. Or I'm wrong and there's a hidden magic button somewhere

 

[adey786]

Someone at some point tried to start, well actually put together, a spreadsheet for on-line tests, that ahs been buried in other threads, thus I don't think people are adding in their data to it. Otherwise admins would probably have to do the same amount of work by manually going through individual lines for every month. Or I'm wrong and there's a hidden magic button somewhere

Yes. Perhaps a new tab listing online test candidates.

I also want to ask if anyone is aware of the news around Facebook post (Canadian citizenship group) where someone quoted her chat with the agent today. The agent told her that online test invites are being sent on case to case basis and not everyone is eligible [therefore major chunk of tests will take place physically whenever IRCC offices are open].

This doesn't sound right to me. I mean the objective of introducing virtual testing was to look at expanding and thus offering virtual test to a larger pool of candidates....

 

[Lex2019]

Yes. Perhaps a new tab listing online test candidates.

I also want to ask if anyone is aware of the news around Facebook post (Canadian citizenship group) where someone quoted her chat with the agent today. The agent told her that online test invites are being sent on case to case basis and not everyone is eligible [therefore major chunk of tests will take place physically whenever IRCC offices are open].

This doesn't sound right to me. I mean the objective of introducing virtual testing was to look at expanding and thus offering virtual test to a larger pool of candidates....

I'd take much of what people post with a grain of salt (myself included) as some tend to misunderstand, hear parts of what's being said, all for good or otherwise their own reasons, but if this is the case then we are again going back to some animals being more equal than others. If this is true Mendicino must resign in disgrace. He's proven to be a very mixed up manager for the diocese he is running and this would be a shameful ending as none of it has ever been communicated in public or I simply can't use Google News search.

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Yes. Perhaps a new tab listing online test candidates.

I also want to ask if anyone is aware of the news around Facebook post (Canadian citizenship group) where someone quoted her chat with the agent today. The agent told her that online test invites are being sent on case to case basis and not everyone is eligible [therefore major chunk of tests will take place physically whenever IRCC offices are open].

This doesn't sound right to me. I mean the objective of introducing virtual testing was to look at expanding and thus offering virtual test to a larger pool of candidates....

Yeah I heard someone tell me about this and I seriously doubt of this applies to the majority of the applicants.

1. The applicant either misunderstood or misheard the agent.
2. The agent had a bad day and wanted to say something and end the call
3. The agent was misinformed (probably new agent)
4. The applicant is deliberately spreading false information (for some weird reason...?)
5. What the agent said was actually true but this only happens in cases where there is very strong suspicion of misrepresentation OR evidence of prior criminality or something was revealed during the BG checks

We now have online tests, online interviews and online oath ceremonies. I seriously suspect that there must have been a misunderstanding or some kind of communication gap in that conversation.

 

[yasir22]

Yes. Perhaps a new tab listing online test candidates.

I also want to ask if anyone is aware of the news around Facebook post (Canadian citizenship group) where someone quoted her chat with the agent today. The agent told her that online test invites are being sent on case to case basis and not everyone is eligible [therefore major chunk of tests will take place physically whenever IRCC offices are open].

This doesn't sound right to me. I mean the objective of introducing virtual testing was to look at expanding and thus offering virtual test to a larger pool of candidates....

Well ppl who applied in September/October 2019 from our processing office are getting test invites and many of us who submitted applications in March April may 2019 are still waiting. Don’t know the criteria of receiving the test invite.

 

[Coco7]

Yes. Perhaps a new tab listing online test candidates.

I also want to ask if anyone is aware of the news around Facebook post (Canadian citizenship group) where someone quoted her chat with the agent today. The agent told her that online test invites are being sent on case to case basis and not everyone is eligible [therefore major chunk of tests will take place physically whenever IRCC offices are open].

This doesn't sound right to me. I mean the objective of introducing virtual testing was to look at expanding and thus offering virtual test to a larger pool of candidates....

The person who wrote that post has been bashing IRCC constantly on the Facebook group, claiming that she has the right to apply for urgent processing because she has a job offer in another country. She is mad because her request has not gotten through. She clearly doesn't understand the application process, so I wouldn't be surprised if she also misunderstood what the agent told her.

 

[adey786]

Well ppl who applied in September/October 2019 from our processing office are getting test invites and many of us who submitted applications in March April may 2019 are still waiting. Don’t know the criteria of receiving the test invite.

Ofcourse it doesn't make sense to skip the earlier AoRs and start working on later ones.

IMO, there could be two reasons, namely, and I believe both are intertwined:

1- IRCC has delayed whole test thing to the breaking point. Now, they are in damage control mode, and trying to speed up processing wherever they can. To control a damage, easiest way is to process applications that are still within 12 month time frame (from AoR) which makes Nov, Dec 2019 and January 2020 AoRs a priority over predecessors. What IRCC will achieve out of this : by cherry picking approach, they will be able to meet KPI of processing applications within 12 months time frame.
2- One may think what is the reason for picking 12 month old application than 16 or 18 months old applications? To control damage, one would look easy fixes first so to make most in the race against clock. We know that criminal and security checks are valid for 12 months (which I believe starts some weeks after "in process" stage). I believe those security checks expire after 12 months. Therefore, IRCC would have picked files with valid security checks. What message outside world is getting: the processing has resumed albeit a large majority is still waiting for test invites.

My worry is the backlog of applications where security/criminal clearance has expired and IRCC need to initiate those checks again. Having said that, I sense that the sequence of applications will be as follows:

Pandemic files (where IRCC offices were closed until Nov notification):

1-Those with valid checks will be processed to move to the next step. This is happening now.
2- The files with expired checks need re-work. I have not seen 16-18 months aged applicants receiving an invite for test yet. Whenever it start, it will be the begining. However, this has not started at this point in time.

Post Nov notification:

3- These applicants may probably be processed to continue to meet KPI (12 months). Keep in mind there are paper based and online application systems in place now.
4- Online applications will actually be processed faster than the paper based family applications. Online application system is brand new but once it is up and running, families would also be able to submit online applications.

 

[adey786]

The person who wrote that post has been bashing IRCC constantly on the Facebook group, claiming that she has the right to apply for urgent processing because she has a job offer in another country. She is mad because her request has not gotten through. She clearly doesn't understand the application process, so I wouldn't be surprised if she also misunderstood what the agent told her.

I agree.

Sharing another aspect around why there are lesser test invites than we thought there would be:

IRCC launched 2 new technology platforms almost simultaneously I.e. online testing platform and online citizenship application platform.

I have heard from different people that there are bugs in online citizenship application platform. On the contrary, I have not read about tech issues re citizenship test platform.

Perhaps IRCC's technology team is over-stretched and been asked to focus on addressing the bugs and this may have slowed down the testing of citizenship
testing platform.

 

[Flandernss]

I agree.

Sharing another aspect around why there are lesser test invites than we thought there would be:

IRCC launched 2 new technology platforms almost simultaneously I.e. online testing platform and online citizenship application platform.

I have heard from different people that there are bugs in online citizenship application platform. On the contrary, I have not read about tech issues re citizenship test platform.

Perhaps IRCC's technology team is over-stretched and been asked to focus on addressing the bugs and this may have slowed down the testing of citizenship
testing platform.

Bugs should be dealt by the IT personnel. The tests having no important bugs, should be operating normally with regular admin staff...

 

[BA2LAMAZ]

One step closer to the end... Received Oath Invite today for Feb 12th!

Location: Vancouver
Application Sent: July 15, 2019
AOR: Nov 27 | In process ecas: Dec 19, 2019
New Test Letter Invite: Dec. 30, 2020 | New Test Interview Date: Jan. 04, 2021 (passed on Jan 07)
DM: Jan 12th | Oath Letter: Feb 2nd | Citizenship Ceremony: Feb 12th

 

[minijoo]

One step closer to the end... Received Oath Invite today for Feb 12th!

Location: Vancouver
Application Sent: July 15, 2019
AOR: Nov 27 | In process ecas: Dec 19, 2019
New Test Letter Invite: Dec. 30, 2020 | New Test Interview Date: Jan. 04, 2021 (passed on Jan 07)
DM: Jan 12th | Oath Letter: Feb 2nd | Citizenship Ceremony: Feb 12th

Congrats! At least 2 applicants in Vancouver received invitations to their oath ceremonies while Surrey office is not even giving updates :/

 

[AshesNdust]

I agree.

Sharing another aspect around why there are lesser test invites than we thought there would be:

IRCC launched 2 new technology platforms almost simultaneously I.e. online testing platform and online citizenship application platform.

I have heard from different people that there are bugs in online citizenship application platform. On the contrary, I have not read about tech issues re citizenship test platform.

Perhaps IRCC's technology team is over-stretched and been asked to focus on addressing the bugs and this may have slowed down the testing of citizenship
testing platform.

People can’t see past their own desires and, because they aren’t getting what they want, they complain or make unfounded accusations. There’s nothing unfair or strange going in with the online process for citizenship testing.
First, the IRCC said the pilot program was going to be only 5000 people and it would be a mix of people who had previous tests canceled and those they deemed high priority. We don’t always know if someone was put into high priority. That could mean anything from having a political reason to they are considered a good test case to put through this new system. We also don’t know what’s on other peoples application. So, just saying someone got an online test without having a previous test canceled proves the process is unfair is just not true and has zero evidence supporting it. There was never going to be a huge number of test invites the first few months.

Second, there have been people with applications from over 16 months getting invites. People from July 2019 or earlier have all reported getting invites and that’s just people on this forum which represents a minuscule section of citizen applicants.

Third, as you pointed out it’s new technology that has been rolled out for only two months. No sane group would test new software on tens of thousands of people. Of course it’s going to be a smaller number until they can confirm everything is working as planned. Also, they are most likely under staffed as they can’t do as many people as they could do in person. The need to have to go through webcam photos to id applicants and check for cheating is going to cause a bottleneck. Oath-wise, having to watch each person one at a time to check ID, cut up their PR card, and/or sign a form is going to slow things down a bit.

Sorry if I come off harsh, but I’ve seen many threads degenerate into nasty name calling, paranoid accusations, and outright lying. People are stressed out and this is causing some alarming behavior.

 

[latestbot]

People can’t see past their own desires and, because they aren’t getting what they want, they complain or make unfounded accusations. There’s nothing unfair or strange going in with the online process for citizenship testing.
First, the IRCC said the pilot program was going to be only 5000 people and it would be a mix of people who had previous tests canceled and those they deemed high priority. We don’t always know if someone was put into high priority. That could mean anything from having a political reason to they are considered a good test case to put through this new system. We also don’t know what’s on other peoples application. So, just saying someone got an online test without having a previous test canceled proves the process is unfair is just not true and has zero evidence supporting it. There was never going to be a huge number of test invites the first few months.

Second, there have been people with applications from over 16 months getting invites. People from July 2019 or earlier have all reported getting invites and that’s just people on this forum which represents a minuscule section of citizen applicants.

Third, as you pointed out it’s new technology that has been rolled out for only two months. No sane group would test new software on tens of thousands of people. Of course it’s going to be a smaller number until they can confirm everything is working as planned. Also, they are most likely under staffed as they can’t do as many people as they could do in person. The need to have to go through webcam photos to id applicants and check for cheating is going to cause a bottleneck. Oath-wise, having to watch each person one at a time to check ID, cut up their PR card, and/or sign a form is going to slow things down a bit.

Sorry if I come off harsh, but I’ve seen many threads degenerate into nasty name calling, paranoid accusations, and outright lying. People are stressed out and this is causing some alarming behavior.

I think it all can be boiled down to having patience. Who knows if the vaccine situation improves in next few months & things start picking up in spring / summer?

We should all be patient & keep faith in the system.

 

[AshesNdust]

I think it all can be boiled down to having patience. Who knows if the vaccine situation improves in next few months & things start picking up in spring / summer?

We should all be patient & keep faith in the system.

Exactly. As far as I can tell, the online test through oath workflow seems to be working fairly well from a user stand point. If there’s not too much of a bottleneck issue behind the scenes, the IRCC will hopefully be able to start increasing the number of invites being sent out.

One thing that I think they could improve upon is communication. Even just a small update saying:

“We are still in the pilot phase. Once we have finished this, we will post an update.”

would be good. It would help a little bit with the stress that we all going through. It’s not getting any info and not having a very clear idea what is happening that is huge cause of many people’s anxieties which is understandable.

Everyone, take a deep breathe and hang in there! Good thoughts to all of you!