April 2013 applications

[Suin]

Hi
I got my test letter today. ???
I applied in April 18,
processing start 10 July and
test date February 03.

Good news! Congratulations! What is your local office?

 

[rinku]

Hi Suin
My local office Mississauga.
I want to ask you is it enough if I study only discover canada book for test? Do u have suggestions?
Let me know

 

[Moe...]

Hi
I got my test letter today. ???
I applied in April 18,
processing start 10 July and
test date February 03.

Had you ever got RQ?

 

[keesio]

Hi Suin
My local office Mississauga.
I want to ask you is it enough if I study only discover canada book for test? Do u have suggestions?
Let me know

everything you need to know is in the Discover Canada book. But there is a lot of information in it. What I found most useful was looking for practice tests on the internet. Just google "canadian citizenship test" and you will see many hits. I took many practice tests over and over until i was scoring in the high 90% every time. When the real test came around, I was ready for it.

 

[rinku]

Had you ever got RQ?


No i didn't

 

[Dejaavu]

Does ecas first get updated before one gets the test invitation?
Or the test invitation comes and then ecas gets updated?

 

[rocky272727]

Does ecas first get updated before one gets the test invitation?
Or the test invitation comes and then ecas gets updated?

They update the status and mail it same day. Usually online status takes 2-3 days to show the update.

I saw my status online first and then got the mail in the evening same day.

 

[Dejaavu]

Thanks! Good to know!

 

[rinku]

Quote from: Dejaavu on January 15, 2014, 10:57:03 pm

Does ecas first get updated before one gets the test invitation?
Or the test invitation comes and then ecas gets updated?

______________________________________________________________________________________--

In my case I receive the letter on 14th of January and ecas update today.

 

[keesio]

For me, eCAS got updated one day after I got the test invite letter in the mail.

 

[Chrysss]

-------------------------
We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on April 26, 2013.

We sent you a letter acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on April 26, 2013. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

We started processing your application on August 1, 2013.
-----------------------

I am happy a lot of you have started receiving citizenship test letters but my application seems to be stuck. My wife and I applied together (both applications mailed in same envelope). My wife had requested to use my last-name as her last-name in citizenship card. So far she has all official documents are with her maiden-name. So, Citizenship sent a letter to my wife - asking for her marriage certificate, copies of provincial IDs etc. (but all those documents show her maiden-name anyway). In any case, she sent all those documents and they recieved those documents on Dec 6, 2013. Funny thing is those documents were already there in the envelope. We haven't heard anything since.


I called call-center and they said our application is going through background/criminal checks. It is still in Nova Scotia (the letter they sent to us asking for marriage certificate etc was also from Nova Scotia and she mailed in the documents to Nova Scotia too). I asked them what is the estimated time for processing and I said my friend that applied AFTER me in May 2013 are already receiving letters for citizenship tests. She said, well, it looks like it should be processed by [size=10pt]May 2015[/size]. It sounds like she just counted 25 months from date of application and gave me that date. I hope I don't have to wait that long!!

 

[keesio]

Chrysss - sorry to hear of your delay. I wonder if the request to use her married name forced CIC to re-run background checks in that name in December, thus slowing things down.

the 25 months timeline is just their generic response since they don't really know for sure. I think that is what they have on their webpage.

 

[farrous13]

Chrysss, a similar situation happened to me.

My file was transferred from Nova Scotia on Jan 9th 2014. It's a single application. Most, if not all, of the applicants from Montreal already did the test (the ones who applied in May 2013) in Dec or Jan. But the excuse I got when I called was that I just recently passed my background verification. The statement "it will take 25 month to process", should be taken with a grain of salt.
I just can't believe that my background verification took longer than every one else. I wonder what they found about me or maybe my application went a different route because of serious doubts. I didn't get an RQ from Sydney. But it makes me wonder why. Only if the CIC can treat applicants like clients and provide more information.

Good luck to you and your family!

-------------------------
We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on April 26, 2013.

We sent you a letter acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on April 26, 2013. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

We started processing your application on August 1, 2013.
-----------------------

I am happy a lot of you have started receiving citizenship test letters but my application seems to be stuck. My wife and I applied together (both applications mailed in same envelope). My wife had requested to use my last-name as her last-name in citizenship card. So far she has all official documents are with her maiden-name. So, Citizenship sent a letter to my wife - asking for her marriage certificate, copies of provincial IDs etc. (but all those documents show her maiden-name anyway). In any case, she sent all those documents and they recieved those documents on Dec 6, 2013. Funny thing is those documents were already there in the envelope. We haven't heard anything since.


I called call-center and they said our application is going through background/criminal checks. It is still in Nova Scotia (the letter they sent to us asking for marriage certificate etc was also from Nova Scotia and she mailed in the documents to Nova Scotia too). I asked them what is the estimated time for processing and I said my friend that applied AFTER me in May 2013 are already receiving letters for citizenship tests. She said, well, it looks like it should be processed by [size=10pt]May 2015[/size]. It sounds like she just counted 25 months from date of application and gave me that date. I hope I don't have to wait that long!!

 

[Chrysss]

Chrysss - sorry to hear of your delay. I wonder if the request to use her married name forced CIC to re-run background checks in that name in December, thus slowing things down.

the 25 months timeline is just their generic response since they don't really know for sure. I think that is what they have on their webpage.

I don't think they were forced to re-run background check. I think it's quite possible that they opened the application, looked at name-change request and paused processing to ask my wife for more documents. Maybe if she hadn't requested a different name, the application would have gotten processed as part of normal routine. But who knows. I am only guessing.

Yeah - I agree that 25 months is probably a generic response. They may have decided to wait for name-change documents before even starting criminal/background check. So, maybe they just started that right now. If so, it should be completed in 2-4 months (guessing based on how much time it has taken for other people to do this).

Chrysss, a similar situation happened to me.

My file was transferred from Nova Scotia on Jan 9th 2014. It's a single application. Most, if not all, of the applicants from Montreal already did the test (the ones who applied in May 2013) in Dec or Jan. But the excuse I got when I called was that I just recently passed my background verification. The statement "it will take 25 month to process", should be taken with a grain of salt.
I just can't believe that my background verification took longer than every one else. I wonder what they found about me or maybe my application went a different route because of serious doubts. I didn't get an RQ from Sydney. But it makes me wonder why. Only if the CIC can treat applicants like clients and provide more information.

Good luck to you and your family!

Thanks for sharing. Yeah, I think they probably didn't even start background/criminal check on my application as they may have been waiting for documents relating to name-change. But then again, it's just a guess.

 

[FL1040]

I am going to call on Monday because I got the Notice to Prepare by mid-December, I am wondering if the operators at the call centre can have access to other information than what I can see when I check my e-cas, or will they just check my case on the CIC website and tell me the same thing I can see