2011 and 2012 Applicants
- Thread starter djoli
- Start date
I attended my test today after almost 3 years (applied Nov 2012). Things went well at interview (my opinion about it).
Most of the people (at least four others I spoke to, all of them) were all applicants from 3 years ago. It was at Glen Erin, Mississauga this morning.
Most of the people (at least four others I spoke to, all of them) were all applicants from 3 years ago. It was at Glen Erin, Mississauga this morning.
i dont know if i ever updated you guys..but I am already a canadian citizen ! it feels so good ! the decision made notice on ECAS changed and after 12 days I saw the notice on ECAS inviting for the oath…..
my ceremony was a month ago…
good luck everyone!
my ceremony was a month ago…
good luck everyone!
Hi everyone,
Long time lurker here. My partner has been waiting for a decision on her citizenship application since 2012, and we have recently received some encouraging news after years of silence, so I thought about sharing them here for those still waiting - there is hope
My parter applied back in early 2012. The application was received on May 2012 and they sent her the Discover Canada book on that same day. Nothing happened between May 2012 and January 2013. In January 2013, ECAS was updated with a message that they started processing the application.
Two months later, in March, she received an RQ. We gathered as much information as we could and sent a 2.5kg+ package to them in April 2013. After sending those documents in, we did not hear back from CIC for over two years. It seems that they received the package and it got lost somewhere in their offices.
With the latest ECAS update being “We started processing your application on January XX, 2013”, we reached the 36 month mark and started calling CIC daily for updates. We were given conflicting information by several agents, such as "you're scheduled for a test", "an officer will interview you shortly", "there's no movement since 2013", "we still haven't reviewed the RQ", "a judge has your RQ" and so on. Almost all agents would ask us to wait 2-3 months and call again for another update. Ultimately, we decided that we couldn’t trust the information told by the agents.
This past July, we requested an ATIP. Upon receiving the ATIP, first, we noticed the file had been recently assigned to an officer (May 2015). Although that shed some light and a bit of hope, it means that nothing happened from early 2013 to May 2015 and added to our frustration.
On the other hand, to our surprise, we also noticed that she was around 20 days short of the 1095 mark according to the ATIP. This happened due to a genuine mistake by my partner because of some confusion with how the dates were calculated prior to her becoming a permanent resident. Mind you, she used professional help to fill out those forms.
We considered withdrawing and reapplying as she certainly meets the requirements still because she continued living in Canada and still meets all residency requirements. We also knew that there was a high possibility of having the application denied due to those 20 or so days, but after waiting over 3 years, we decided to wait a few more months before making a decision now that it had been assigned to an officer.
To our surprise, on September 30th, ECAS was updated for the first time since January 2013 with a message that they had sent her a notice to write the citizenship test in mid October at the St. Clair office. The test went fine and she had a meeting with an officer after the test. Needless to say, she was nervous about the outcome of this meeting after waiting years for it.
The officer couldn’t have been nicer to her. Actually, she said that all of the officers seemed extremely sympathetic to all applicants. The officer had her RQ documents with him, and a sheet with several items he was checking off as they spoke. He never asked anything about being under 1095 days. According to the officer, their concern was with a passport that she lost a few years ago. That was the passport she used to first come to Canada, and he said that without it, it was harder to confirm her arrival/departure dates from the Canada as there were no stamps. He also asked her about her current life, job, and she had the chance to go over her life in Canada, including the fact the recently bought a house with me. The officer was excited about it and asked to photocopy the deed and add it to the file. To the interview, she brought a lot of additional documents (bank statements, utility bills, property taxes, school certificates, paychecks, reference letters, health records) covering the period from her application to this past month, but the officer said he didn't need to see any.
At the end of the meeting (which lasted 5-10 minutos), he said that he’d only need to request 2 or 3 clearance certificates (CBSA / FOSS / Police checks) which could take 1-2 months to complete, but she should receive an oath letter after that. If she didn’t hear from them in 3 months, he asked her to call an inquire about it as she should be scheduled for an oath ceremony by then.
Ten days after the test, her ECAS got updated with Decision Made. We still haven’t received any letter and there’s no status update other than the change from “In Process” to “Decision Made”, but after waiting 3 1/2 years, that’s encouraging.
To all 2011-2012 applicants still waiting, there is hope. They’re still going through all of the applications and I suspect they’re going in reverse order (newest to oldest) based on what I’ve been reading here. I also believe they would rather grant citizenship quickly to all of those that are still living in the country and would still qualify for citizenship instead of having them all reapply in case of a small shortage of days or any other issues, which would increase their backlog with a new application from scratch that would eventually be approved.
Timeline:
Application received (ECAS update) - May 2012
Discover Canada study book received - May 2012
Started processing application (ECAS update) - January 2013
RQ received - March 2013
RQ sent - April 2013
File assigned to officer (ATIP) - May 2015
Letter to write test (ECAS update) - September 2015
Test & interview at St. Clair office - October 2015
Decision Made (ECAS update) - October 2015
Long time lurker here. My partner has been waiting for a decision on her citizenship application since 2012, and we have recently received some encouraging news after years of silence, so I thought about sharing them here for those still waiting - there is hope
My parter applied back in early 2012. The application was received on May 2012 and they sent her the Discover Canada book on that same day. Nothing happened between May 2012 and January 2013. In January 2013, ECAS was updated with a message that they started processing the application.
Two months later, in March, she received an RQ. We gathered as much information as we could and sent a 2.5kg+ package to them in April 2013. After sending those documents in, we did not hear back from CIC for over two years. It seems that they received the package and it got lost somewhere in their offices.
With the latest ECAS update being “We started processing your application on January XX, 2013”, we reached the 36 month mark and started calling CIC daily for updates. We were given conflicting information by several agents, such as "you're scheduled for a test", "an officer will interview you shortly", "there's no movement since 2013", "we still haven't reviewed the RQ", "a judge has your RQ" and so on. Almost all agents would ask us to wait 2-3 months and call again for another update. Ultimately, we decided that we couldn’t trust the information told by the agents.
This past July, we requested an ATIP. Upon receiving the ATIP, first, we noticed the file had been recently assigned to an officer (May 2015). Although that shed some light and a bit of hope, it means that nothing happened from early 2013 to May 2015 and added to our frustration.
On the other hand, to our surprise, we also noticed that she was around 20 days short of the 1095 mark according to the ATIP. This happened due to a genuine mistake by my partner because of some confusion with how the dates were calculated prior to her becoming a permanent resident. Mind you, she used professional help to fill out those forms.
We considered withdrawing and reapplying as she certainly meets the requirements still because she continued living in Canada and still meets all residency requirements. We also knew that there was a high possibility of having the application denied due to those 20 or so days, but after waiting over 3 years, we decided to wait a few more months before making a decision now that it had been assigned to an officer.
To our surprise, on September 30th, ECAS was updated for the first time since January 2013 with a message that they had sent her a notice to write the citizenship test in mid October at the St. Clair office. The test went fine and she had a meeting with an officer after the test. Needless to say, she was nervous about the outcome of this meeting after waiting years for it.
The officer couldn’t have been nicer to her. Actually, she said that all of the officers seemed extremely sympathetic to all applicants. The officer had her RQ documents with him, and a sheet with several items he was checking off as they spoke. He never asked anything about being under 1095 days. According to the officer, their concern was with a passport that she lost a few years ago. That was the passport she used to first come to Canada, and he said that without it, it was harder to confirm her arrival/departure dates from the Canada as there were no stamps. He also asked her about her current life, job, and she had the chance to go over her life in Canada, including the fact the recently bought a house with me. The officer was excited about it and asked to photocopy the deed and add it to the file. To the interview, she brought a lot of additional documents (bank statements, utility bills, property taxes, school certificates, paychecks, reference letters, health records) covering the period from her application to this past month, but the officer said he didn't need to see any.
At the end of the meeting (which lasted 5-10 minutos), he said that he’d only need to request 2 or 3 clearance certificates (CBSA / FOSS / Police checks) which could take 1-2 months to complete, but she should receive an oath letter after that. If she didn’t hear from them in 3 months, he asked her to call an inquire about it as she should be scheduled for an oath ceremony by then.
Ten days after the test, her ECAS got updated with Decision Made. We still haven’t received any letter and there’s no status update other than the change from “In Process” to “Decision Made”, but after waiting 3 1/2 years, that’s encouraging.
To all 2011-2012 applicants still waiting, there is hope. They’re still going through all of the applications and I suspect they’re going in reverse order (newest to oldest) based on what I’ve been reading here. I also believe they would rather grant citizenship quickly to all of those that are still living in the country and would still qualify for citizenship instead of having them all reapply in case of a small shortage of days or any other issues, which would increase their backlog with a new application from scratch that would eventually be approved.
Timeline:
Application received (ECAS update) - May 2012
Discover Canada study book received - May 2012
Started processing application (ECAS update) - January 2013
RQ received - March 2013
RQ sent - April 2013
File assigned to officer (ATIP) - May 2015
Letter to write test (ECAS update) - September 2015
Test & interview at St. Clair office - October 2015
Decision Made (ECAS update) - October 2015
Congratulation..... wow... when I was reading I had a feeling that you are writing
my story with CIC, except I am much over the required number of days...
My status also showing decision made immediately after my interview/test
and according to my atip report all my security check up done...
now am waiting for oath letter to have happy ending of my long wait
almost 4 years........ Please keep in touch if any further progress..
my story with CIC, except I am much over the required number of days...
My status also showing decision made immediately after my interview/test
and according to my atip report all my security check up done...
now am waiting for oath letter to have happy ending of my long wait
almost 4 years........ Please keep in touch if any further progress..
Thank you janoo!
I've been reading your messages for quite some time here and can imagine how frustrating it must have been, but thankfully you're almost done as well! That's excellent news!
I will keep you updated as soon as we receive any notification, and good luck to everyone still waiting. I can tell it's not easy to go through what you've all gone through after seeing my partner frustrated for so many years.
I've been reading your messages for quite some time here and can imagine how frustrating it must have been, but thankfully you're almost done as well! That's excellent news!
I will keep you updated as soon as we receive any notification, and good luck to everyone still waiting. I can tell it's not easy to go through what you've all gone through after seeing my partner frustrated for so many years.
True I was out of touch with this forum for two months due to frustration and
depression seeing all 2015 -2014 applicant getting oath and all of sudden I
got interview and decision made October 23 at St.Clair now hope it will not
take more than few weeks. Keep in touch...
depression seeing all 2015 -2014 applicant getting oath and all of sudden I
got interview and decision made October 23 at St.Clair now hope it will not
take more than few weeks. Keep in touch...
congrats Janoo. Nice to know your file moved forward. You should be scheduled for oath soon.
I applied in Nov 2012. Not a word from CIC till September 2015. No RQ or any other communication. Suddenly, I was scheduled for test on 8th Oct and took my oath today. It moved really fast.
Good luck to all of you out there. Things seem to be moving fast.
I applied in Nov 2012. Not a word from CIC till September 2015. No RQ or any other communication. Suddenly, I was scheduled for test on 8th Oct and took my oath today. It moved really fast.
Good luck to all of you out there. Things seem to be moving fast.
Janoo, congrats! I am glad to hear that your wait is over now and got what you've deserved, Sir. Enjoy your life!janoo said:
To Janoo,
Congrats and hope you will receive your Oath invitation soon! I was in your shoes and understand how you feel. I am still feeling hurtful when looking back my journey. It is such an unfair system. I understand that it is make sense for them to ask for a proof but they should have a better system to process our application after we have submitted everything that are needed, instead of leaving it covered with dust for years.
I want to let them know that.... me and many others whom they had a suspect and made us stuck in a ridiculous non routine channel for many years.. Now that we became a Canadian, we still live, work, pay tax and contribute to the society in Canada as we have been doing since the day we landed.
I was happy that I was able to vote in this election, hope for a better change!
Congrats and hope you will receive your Oath invitation soon! I was in your shoes and understand how you feel. I am still feeling hurtful when looking back my journey. It is such an unfair system. I understand that it is make sense for them to ask for a proof but they should have a better system to process our application after we have submitted everything that are needed, instead of leaving it covered with dust for years.
I want to let them know that.... me and many others whom they had a suspect and made us stuck in a ridiculous non routine channel for many years.. Now that we became a Canadian, we still live, work, pay tax and contribute to the society in Canada as we have been doing since the day we landed.
I was happy that I was able to vote in this election, hope for a better change!