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Virtual Citizenship Ceremony Experience in detail!

rajkamalmohanram

rajkamalmohanram

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Apr 29, 2015
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VIRTUAL CITIZENSHIP CEREMONY EXPERIENCE
​
Okay, so as promised, detailed below is my citizenship ceremony experience. I'll post it as three parts because I can't fit everything in one post.

PART 1​


Local Office : Mississauga IRCC
Oath Ceremony Date : August 23rd, 2021
Oath Ceremony Time: 8:30 AM EST
IRCC Crew: 1 Citizenship Judge + 1 Administrator for Zoom + 1 Main Clerk + 3 IRCC officials (referred to as clerks)
Total # of applicants: 44

On the ceremony day

I woke up to my first alarm at 6:45 AM (and then I disabled the 6 other alarms I had created the night before).

Got ready, was browsing the forum for a while until 7:55 AM. I closed other applications, made sure my UPS was correctly working, connected my desktop to my mobile hotspot (if there are issues with the Wi-Fi modem/router), checked camera / microphone and had the Zoom application open.

At 8:00 AM sharp, I keyed in the meeting ID and the password and it said "Please wait for the host to start the meeting". At around 8:15 AM, I saw the message "The meeting host will let you in soon" and also, in the chat window, there was a message asking all of us to "rename" ourselves using the last name. It was that way until 8:25 AM when I was put in a room with the others and the administrator. The administrator was talking to another participant when I joined. I was on mute for about 2 minutes. The administrator then asked me to unmute myself and asked for my last name. I told him and then he gave me a seat # (Seat # is basically the breakout room # that you will be put in).

Breakout Room - Before administering oath ( 43 minutes - From 8:27 AM to 9:10 AM)

I was in the breakout room by 8:27 AM. At 8:28 AM, one of the IRCC officials joined me in the breakout room. This is how the conversation went in the breakout room before proceeding to the main event of the day!

1. I was asked my full name

2. I was told since we are using 3rd party tool, confidentiality cannot be guaranteed during the ceremony

3. I was told if I happened to get disconnected, I can re-join using the same link / meeting ID and password to rejoin.

4. I was told my video froze (I clicked on "Stop Video" and then "Start Video" again to fix it)

5. The officer confirmed that I was physically present in Canada

6. The officer asked me if I was signing the oath form on paper or electronically (I said I'll sign it electronically). The officer asked me if I had a chance to go over the instructions on how to sign the form electronically and I said "Yes" (I already had Adobe Reader DC setup with the signatures). He insisted that he still wants to go over on how to do it and I politely agreed. Basically, he asked that we don't use the mouse to sign. You'd have to sign on a piece of paper, scan it, import it to your computer and then use that image as signature in Adobe Reader. I said "Okay, thank you".

7. The officer reminded me that if the signature doesn't meet the standards, he'll give me a call within 2 business days and ask me to re-sign the form.

8. He then asked me 2 questions - "Are there any situations that may prevent you from becoming a citizen today?" and "In the past 5 years, have you ever been in trouble with the law or immigration". I answered "No" and "No, never" respectively.

9. The officer said my video froze and wanted me to restart it. I did that (same steps as in Step 4).

10. I was asked for my DL and PR card. I showed him the PR card first (front and back) and told him I have a temporary DL as the physical card is yet to come in the mail and I asked him if I can show him my health card instead (I still showed him the license that I had). He agreed and I showed him the health card.

11. He then provided some instructions - To put phone in silent mode, a holy book can be used during oath, you can stay seated and there is no need to standup at any point during the ceremony and not to take pictures or record the ceremony but picture with the judge is allowed after oath ceremony in the breakout room.

12. I was then asked if I had any questions and I told him I need the citizenship certificate urgently. He looked at my file and he told me that since Urgent Processing was approved in my case, the citizenship certificate will be expedited as long as I send the oath form correctly and on time.

13. He then told me he'll give me the contact number for Passport services after the oath ceremony.

14. He then told me if my video were to freeze while taking oath, he'll send me a DM on Zoom and ask me to restart the video.

That's it. The officer left the breakout room at around 8:35 (conversation took around 8 minutes) I was told to wait in the room and I'll be connected to the main room when the oath ceremony begins. I was waiting in the breakout room until 9:10 AM EST.
 
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rajkamalmohanram

rajkamalmohanram

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Apr 29, 2015
15,803
5,786
PART 2​

Oath Ceremony - Main event ( 22 minutes - From 9:10 AM to 9:32 AM)

Instructions from Main clerk and Judge: 2 minutes - 9:10 AM to 9:12 AM
Opening Remarks : 7 minutes - 9:12 AM to 9:19 AM
Instructions from Main Clerk : 2 minutes - 9:19 AM to 9:21 AM
Oath in English: 2 minutes - 9:21 AM to 9:23 AM
Oath in French: 2 minutes - 9:23 AM to 9:25 AM
Closing Remarks: 6 minutes - 9:26 AM - 9:32 AM

I was sitting in the breakout room from was connected to the main room at 9:10 AM. The message "Returning to Main Session" showed up on the screen. There were several issues with this ceremony as the judge explained before his opening notes.

1. The main clerk of the ceremony wasn't able to connect. So, another IRCC official had to step in and take the role of the main clerk in this ceremony. This substitute also had Internet issues but thank goodness, she somehow managed to connect to the session via iPad to conduct the ceremony.

2. The judge asked everyone to mute their microphones until the technical issues have been resolved.

3. The substitute main clerk then started by apologizing for the technical issues. She provided instructions - Keep phone volumes low, there is no need to stand during the ceremony, no pictures or recording the ceremony.

4. She then announced that the citizenship ceremony is now in session and read the standard opening line "Judge Wong, In accordance with the provision of the Citizenship Act, it is my privilege to present to you 44 candidates who have met all the requirements of the Citizenship Act and are now ready to take the oath of Citizenship, the final legal requirement to become a Canadian citizen." and then she requested opening remarks from the Judge.

5. The judge then welcomed us to the ceremony and right off the bat, he discussed about the technical difficulties the team were facing. He mentioned that 2/5 clerks dropped out because of technical difficulties and the main clerk also wasn't able to join because of technical difficulties and how the remaining 3 clerks had to scramble and take care of the applicants that the other 2 clerks were supposed to be handling.

6. He then read an acknowledgement that he is from Mississauga and he is living on traditional Wyandot territory (customary opening and a sign of respect to the indigenous peoples). He spoke about reconciliation with the indigenous peoples of Canada, terrible legacy of residential schools, the importance of awareness of the past, he spoke against all kinds of discrimination, confirmed everyone older than 18 as of September 20th can vote in this election.

7. The clerk then took over and read the instructions as to who has to take oath (applicants 14 years or older) , the necessity to take oath in both English and French and encouraged us to repeat it in both languages and that we have the option to start the oath with "I swear" or "I affirm".

8. We were all asked to unmute the microphones, raise our right hand and repeat the oath after him.

9. Before he started administering oath, he asked "Ready??" and we all said "Yes!!" with a smile on our faces! To that, the judge said this - "Well, if you are not ready, we can always cancel the ceremony and schedule you for a ceremony in 2022" and he was laughing :p . Everyone started laughing and someone said "No, we're good" and the judge said "Okay, so no need to do that" and then said "This is it, this is the moment!!!" and then proceeded to administer oath.

10. I could see the main clerk carefully looking all over the screen (I guess she was making sure that everyone is "actually" saying the oath loud and clear).

11. He then went on to acknowledge that he understands that most of the applicants in the ceremony don't speak French but he insisted that we all repeat the oath in French as a sign of respect to the other official language of Canada and we did. The oath was administered in French.

12. After this, the judge mentioned that he'll give his closing remarks shortly and we have to wait in the breakout room after the closing remarks for important "administrative" work.

13. He started the closing remarks by saying "Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls - You are now known as a Canadian to the rest of the world" which brought a smile to everyone's face.

14. The judge then gave credit to the team who were supposedly working behind the scenes to ensure that address change requests and other things applicants requested at the start of the ceremony were all taken care of.

15. He spoke directly to the students in the applicant pool and encouraged everyone to learn at least one of the arts as well (poetry, dance, etc).

16. The judge then mentioned that since April 2021, IRCC has given citizenship to approximately 50,000 applicants.

17. He then thanked each and every staff member that were present that day (individually by name) for their work.

18. He suggested that we say a simple "Thank you" when we meet the IRCC staff in the breakout room after the closing remarks.

19. The clerk then declared that the citizenship ceremony is now officially closed and we'll have to wait in the breakout room until and clerk gets to us.

20. We were all sent to our breakout rooms at 9:32 AM.
 
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rajkamalmohanram

rajkamalmohanram

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Apr 29, 2015
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PART 3
​
Breakout Room - After administering oath ( 12 minutes - From 9:32 AM to 9:44 AM)

1. I had to wait in the breakout room for about 6 minutes before the clerk (same clerk who verified documents before the ceremony) joined the room.

2. He asked to see my PR card again and he asked me to cut the PR card in 4 pieces and to hold up the hand to the camera while cutting it.

3. As soon as he said that, I told him "This is the worst part of the ceremony" and he started laughing.

4. He carefully saw me destroy the PR card and then told me that the card won't be active anyway and he asked me to "throw it out".

5. He again mentioned that if there are issues with the oath form, he will call me in 2 business days to get it corrected.

6. He then confirmed my address and the postal code.

7. He then asked if I had my landing papers or COPR (he called it "Copper").

8. He said that my video froze and I had to restart the video.

9. I showed him my COPR and he read the details on it.

10. He asked me to write "HOLDER IS NO LONGER A PERMANENT RESIDENT" on the COPR.

11. He said the video froze again and asked me to restart the video.

12. He asked me to show the COPR again to confirm I've written what he asked me to write.

13. He then asked me if I had any questions. I thanked him for his work today and confirmed one last time with if my citizenship certificate will be expedited and he said it will be but that depends on when I send the oath form in the correct format (no issues with signature).

14. He then gave me the phone number for Passport Canada Call center.

15. He then welcomed me into the Canadian family and once again reminded me to send the oath form in the with proper signatures as soon as possible.

16. He asked me if I wanted a photo with the judge and I said "Sure, please".

17. The clerk left the room at 9:42 AM.

18. The judge joined the breakout room at 9:44 AM. I took a couple of photos with the judge and also took a screenshot.

19. I left the meeting at 9:45 AM EST.

Post Ceremony

1. I already had the signature ready in Adobe Acrobat Reader DC

2. I opened the oath form, placed the signature in 2 places on the form (one under the oath wording and the other under prohibitions) and emailed the form in about 10 minutes.

3. The feeling was slowly sinking in that I am now a Canadian citizen :) .
 
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rajkamalmohanram

rajkamalmohanram

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Apr 29, 2015
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aak19 said:
Awesome!! Congratulations finally you are a Canadian citizen after such a long wait .. njoy the moment to fullest !!
Click to expand...
Thanks. But honestly, I didn't wait that long. My heart goes out to applicants from 2019 who are still waiting for test invite and for oath. I hope everyone gets processed soon and IRCC finds a very effective way to tackle the backlog.
 
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rajkamalmohanram

rajkamalmohanram

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namratha_s said:
Hi firstly congratulations

What of we don't have copr????
Also do u mind sharing details about ur OCI and Canadian passport application process once it's done. It would be useful for everyone including me

Thankyou
Click to expand...
I don't think its a really big deal if you don't have your COPR, I did not hear from anyone else who was asked to do this. I'm a bit worried actually about what I wrote on my COPR lol.

Sure, I hope to submit the PP submission today (in-person) and once I get my PP, I'll be able to submit my OCI application.
 
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