Addressing Oath Ceremony Backlog

[WoOz]

I have noticed since I have become a Member on this great Forum/Portal, that one of the soar/main issues highlighted by the Members seems to be the Backlog in Oaths Invites. Applicants keep waiting for their Oath Scheduling for months after their successful Tests/Interviews. This seems to be due to a limited number of Citizenship/Oath Judges (whatever the correct technical term is) and lack of space of holding Ceremonies.

There are Universities that handover diplomas and degrees to thousands of students in a matter of hours. Why can't IRCC book stadiums or facilities that hold a few thousand candidates and do the Oath Taking there. Then, they can give out the Citizenship Certificate just as Universities handover Diplomas or Degrees; by an organized WALK. This can eradicate the Backlog within weeks or less.

For a Citizen, especially a born Citizen, it is quite difficult to understand and feel how important it is to become a Citizen of a great country like Canada. It is even more frustrating to wait for your turn for Oath Taking for months just because the department is inadequately staffed.

Someone important should write to the Honorable Minister of IRCC so that a new policy can be formulated and implemented to get rid of the Backlog.

May be, all the Members of this Forum/Portal can petition to the Honorable Minister or the Honorable Prime Minister to organize suggested Ceremonies for riddance of the Backlog.

 

[erwinjohn997]

I will sign that petition for sure!

 

[WoOz]

I request the Admin to suggest how to go about it?? We will need all those who have successfully become Citizens to support this initiative.

 

[lulykibuly]

Guys let's have patience and wait for the right path to make this happen....I am confident this will pass soon....

 

[WoOz]

There is nothing you can do to change this, and the government certainly isn't going to entertain this as a concept. They try and make it slow on purpose, they don't actually want applications processing quickly. It doesn't justify the process they go through to do it quickly.

Not that I agree with the lack of speed, but that's the reality.

No one is suggesting or asking to expedite the APPLICATION PROCESSING TIME: i.e Application Submission to Test/Interview. Once an Applicant has been approved for Citizenship (After the Test/Interview), the Oath Ceremony should not take such a long time. It sounds sadistic that the Government delays this process on purpose as suggested. Contrary to this view, I believe the Processing Time has improved over previous years. Now, the Test/Interview Invites are taking 4 to 6 months whereas earlier this was in excess of 10 months. My personal experience with the Interview process was very positive. All the Citizenship Officers were actually very pleasant and extremely inclined/eager to approve Applicant for Citizenship rather than create hinderances. I take that as a Positive sign which speaks a lot for the Will and Direction of the Government.

Governments have many ways and tools to deter and delay things if they want to. They can and may do that in the Processing of the Applications. Once a person is Approved, there should be no reason for delaying the process to finality.

Again, this is my humble opinion.

 

[WoOz]

Guys let's have patience and wait for the right path to make this happen....I am confident this will pass soon....

We have no other CHOICE but to be patient .

 

[lulykibuly]

Unfortunately this is a frustrating wait for all of us....But WAITING is the name of the GAME!!

 

[CitizenSoon]

COVID-19: safety measures
To keep everyone safe, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is cancelling all citizenship ceremonies as of March 14, 2020, until further notice. Please check this page regularly for up-to-date information.

 

[WoOz]

I agree with you in principle: I don't think the government should delay these procedures.

But what I was trying to communicate is that the officers/case workers/etc. have zero incentive to improve wait times. Each and every officer and department involved in this process has to justify their pay cheque and answers to a boss and has to show they do tasks. They do so by issuing delays and orders and investigations. The only thing that improves wait times is when they hire 3x the workers to process applications and security checks and etc. And often, even with better, more pro-immigrant federal governments like we have now vs. the previous federal government, they don't have the funds to hire quite that many people. Governments are more interested in funding health care and infrastructure and other priorities, for good reason.

Sadly, the Harper government "improved" wait times by simply rejecting more applicants and throwing applications out, making life miserable for those PR applicants who applied in years' past. Likewise, they increased citizenship waits to 4 years before applying. Again, that's how they made processing look "faster" when they just told people they can't apply for a longer period. The old Conservative gov't was trying to make the pie smaller by just throwing out applications to appear like they were improving the system. The Trudeau government at least is taking a serious investment into hiring a few more people to speed things up and opening up more queues, while accepting many more people.

Its slightly better than years' past, but make no mistake, civil servants don't answer to any party or leader, they process things as the office processes them. And its always going to be painfully slow. Whether you wait 2 years or "only" 1 year, its still a long wait.

Am I making more sense now? Again, I fundamentally agree with you. But that's not the reality I see with immigration services. I spent many years navigating the system before PR, and that was the biggest headache of my life. I even had some failed apps before it went through.

I don't want to get too political, but I hope all the new immigrants who are becoming citizens remembers that this gov't has been very pro immigrant. Relative to the prior government, it has been many times better. Lowering the wait time just to apply from 4 years to 3 years for citizenship was a benefit to us. I would hate to see another government come in and roll it back up, making people wait longer. Just because I'm waiting potentially a few years less to process my application doesn't mean future migrants should have to wait more. I will always remember the process, and will always support those who supported me!

Makes a lot of sense and your point of view is not only understood but also agreed to.

 

[aditvasu]

I have noticed since I have become a Member on this great Forum/Portal, that one of the soar/main issues highlighted by the Members seems to be the Backlog in Oaths Invites. Applicants keep waiting for their Oath Scheduling for months after their successful Tests/Interviews. This seems to be due to a limited number of Citizenship/Oath Judges (whatever the correct technical term is) and lack of space of holding Ceremonies.

There are Universities that handover diplomas and degrees to thousands of students in a matter of hours. Why can't IRCC book stadiums or facilities that hold a few thousand candidates and do the Oath Taking there. Then, they can give out the Citizenship Certificate just as Universities handover Diplomas or Degrees; by an organized WALK. This can eradicate the Backlog within weeks or less.

For a Citizen, especially a born Citizen, it is quite difficult to understand and feel how important it is to become a Citizen of a great country like Canada. It is even more frustrating to wait for your turn for Oath Taking for months just because the department is inadequately staffed.

Someone important should write to the Honorable Minister of IRCC so that a new policy can be formulated and implemented to get rid of the Backlog.

May be, all the Members of this Forum/Portal can petition to the Honorable Minister or the Honorable Prime Minister to organize suggested Ceremonies for riddance of the Backlog.

Corona scare, no one expected to be this serious. Even backlog applications in Mississauga were quickly processed in Feb.

Unfortunately Corona put everything on the back foot again for few months.

It is really good they stopped it. Prevention is better than cure. Crowded ceremonies at the present situation, not at all advisable.

Things will improve by April 1st Week, that time they can clear backlog very fast & quick hopefully. Cheers.

 

[ktown]

I request the Admin to suggest how to go about it?? We will need all those who have successfully become Citizens to support this initiative.

The issue I think its once people get their citizenship they no longer have any skin in the game to care. It crazy how long it takes, for example, it took me nearly 14 months to get my citizenship. Luckily I got it on March 11th but the whole ceremony I think is stupid, to be honest. We should instead have two option

1) sign an affidavit which is notarized by a notary public as part of the application process after when you pass your test your citizenship certificate is mailed to you

2) not sign the affidavit and wait to be called for the oath ceremony

 

[Marooned2]

Oath ceremony is a very surreal and unique experience and I think they want to keep it that way, you really feel what it means to be Canadian, you learn a lot in that ceremony its not just a diploma. Its unfortunate but I don't think they will change that.

 

[bukeluke]

Please be patient during this critical period, let the government to focus on combating the COVID-19. The government needs to prioritize

 

[Copingwithlife]

The issue I think its once people get their citizenship they no longer have any skin in the game to care. It crazy how long it takes, for example, it took me nearly 14 months to get my citizenship. Luckily I got it on March 11th but the whole ceremony I think is stupid, to be honest. We should instead have two option

1) sign an affidavit which is notarized by a notary public as part of the application process after when you pass your test your citizenship certificate is mailed to you

2) not sign the affidavit and wait to be called for the oath ceremony

How about sending your recommendations to the government? I'm sure after they figure out how to stop the healthcare and financial system from collapsing , they'll have the time to look into your ideas

 

[ActionNotWords]

How about sending your recommendations to the government? I'm sure after they figure out how to stop the healthcare and financial system from collapsing , they'll have the time to look into your ideas

Coronavirus is here to stay - at least for another 15 months till a vaccine is found and is available thru out all countries.

The number of infected people will reduce but not eradicate the virus in 1 or 2 months

Healthcare - under a lot of strain - this is the new normal

Financial system - already damaged - will take about 8 to 10 years to recover (similar to post 2008 recession)
Reduction of jobs leads to reduction of income tax collection and spending by consumers.

Citizenship applications - part of important fee income for IRCC - applications on hold increase the backlog and serve no purpose to the govt
Alternative means of granting citizenship - new processes required whether online / notarization / video interview etc

Sending recommendations to govt - Yes, some of us have and some changes in the near future will take place.

Re-starting citizenship ceremonies with the risk of having even 1 infected person in the ceremony will spread the virus among the attendees.