August 2014 Citizenship Applications

[asagalen]

Hi All,

I had my test today at Scarborough and it went well! I also got my Oath invitation for January 16th right after the test! I was very nervous about the interview but the officer was really nice. He reviewed my documents to make sure they were authentic and of course had a look at my stamps. Most of the interview we were just chatting so I was finally at ease. He then pulled out the pink form and asked me how I felt about coming in for the oath on the 16th of January.

All in all, I think it probably took an hour tops.

The test wasn't hard but definitely go over your book. All of it! Below are some of the resources I used and they helped make me comfortable about today. I did all these tests twice after I had read the book once over:

http://www.apnatoronto.com/canadian-citizenship-test-practice/
http://www.yourlibrary.ca/citizenship/
http://www.toptipsclub.com/citizenship_test.asp
http://www.v-soul.com/


Good luck to the other August applicants!

OMG congratulation!!! that was really fast waiting journey hope ours will be like yours ;D cheer!!!

 

[latitudeofgratitude]

• HI all,
  
  An interesting conversation took place in the lunch room at work today.
  
  Re: Fingerprint requests which one of my colleagues shared that he had received, in association with his application. he was expressing concerns as to why...
  
  Needless to say as I work in a contact centre with quiet a few immigrants, there were a few opinions as to why this would happen.
  
  Some of them seemed valid but there was mention of a peculiar possibility that I never heard of before
  See below:
  
  
  • A criminal past which came up during background check
  (Seems like a ligit reason)
  
  • Client profile which had more than a 50% match on RCMP data with some one sharing similar profile info
  (Again seems ligit)
  
  • Client does not yet have a finger print yet in CIC or RCMP Data Base and one needs to be obtained for security reasons
  (This struck me as a odd reason to request a fingerprint)

I decided I would ask for opinions as to the 3RD option
My colleague who made this suggestion stated that laws are now changed and; if CIC or RCMP never had your fingerprint before everyone will need to provide a copy to safe-guard canadian borders; in the event someone tries to use your Canadian passport to gain access to Canada.
Has anyone heard this before ? or is this just someone trying to be a know it all?

If this is true then all inland PR applicants may be exempted from FPR, which would also mean all outland applicants could expect to get finger printed then?

Opinions would be appreciated, it would offer insight to those of us still waiting.

 

[latitudeofgratitude]

Pardon my manners, congrats on tests done and updates

 

[dasm2014]

It seems that almost all GTA August applicants got their invest invitation.congratulations. But how about vancouver and west coast, anybody got invitation? The Vancouver is slow compared to his east counterpart.
My file received on Aug 21, in process since oct 11. almost 3 months passed, still no invitation.

I am still waiting... My local office is Scarborough .

 

[grepis]

I had same experience as sweetdreama today. And very surprised to get invitation, since I was ready to wait additional couple of months for ceremony.
Exam itself is simple, if you have read book multiple times (I did it probably at least 5-6) or listening audiobook (I did around 4 times in a car during commute).

To test knowledge used following:
http://www.citizenshipcounts.ca/study (+android version)
http://www.apnatoronto.com/canadian-citizenship-test-practice/
http://www.citizenshipsupport.ca/ (for this one you have to pay 29$, but it has 611 questions in total). They give 1 year subscription, so my wife will use it as well)

No one provided same questions as on real test, but it doesn't matter. They give you 30 minutes - it is huge amount of time, since I have finished and double-check responses within 6 minutes without any rush.

On interview they test your ability to communicate in English and verify your documents and stamps. Relax, if you don't have anything to hide, it will be straight forward and no delays in process. It total it took around 1.5h.

Just in case, there is parking close to building and it 1$ for 1/2h. Probably you can park on plaza for free.

 

[Rossei]

Congrats grepis and sweetdreama and thanks for sharing your experiences.

But what did you guys take with you for the interview?

 

[ScubaC]

Congrats to everyone!

Just a quick question is Scarborough now giving out oath invites right after the test??

 

[grepis]

But what did you guys take with you for the interview?

I took only
+ original documents (T4 slips and CELPIP results) that was submitted with application (yellow paper mentioned this)
+ passport
+ PR
+ Landing Paper
+ all ID documents that I have in pocession (DL, Healt Card).
In general everything what they requested in invitation for test.

As I recall they verified ID's, inspect passport carefully, asked few questions about my travel history and that is all.
Probably my case is routine - I was out of Canada couple of times only for vacation, same job all the time.

 

[Rossei]

I took only
+ original documents (T4 slips and CELPIP results) that was submitted with application (yellow paper mentioned this)
+ passport
+ PR
+ Landing Paper
+ all ID documents that I have in pocession (DL, Healt Card).
In general everything what they requested in invitation for test.

As I recall they verified ID's, inspect passport carefully, asked few questions about my travel history and that is all.
Probably my case is routine - I was out of Canada couple of times only for vacation, same job all the time.

Thanks for the info. Actually, I didn't know that they request docs during the test/interview.

 

[wanabecanadian]

Congratulations!!
Is the test entirely Multiple choice and True False or is there any writing and short answers involved?

 

[cfbebe]

Okay new update...it's madness.
so we sent of two new applications in January as ous from August, so we were told, was list and CIC asked us to send a new one.
yesterday we received an email saying they received our application. Confused wjich one it is we called.
Guess what it's the onecfrom August.
So the agent said we'll get a refund for our $230 we paid extra....another one said it will get send back if it doesn't have the fee in it. ( 530 now). Some say they will not charge us extra as the application was received on August and some say it doesn't matter.

This is a great example of how messed up cic is.
Let's see what's happening next.

 

[Rossei]

Has anyone checked this link:

Find a citizenship ceremony...

Looks like London office (where my file was transferred on Dec 17 according to e-cas) has 2 upcoming ceremony's on Jan 19 and Feb 14. But I wasn't contacted yet. I wish I get something in Feb (not this month).

 

[cfbebe]

I submitted my application August. I called CIC two times on December. The first agent was rude and told me send a new application. The second one was polite and told me be patient. It might be returned because of missing documents or might still working on it. I don't really now what to do. But I've seen many people that have gotten AOR after 5 to 7 months of sending application.
Keep me posted
Thanks

Ur email box is full....tried to send y a private message.

 

[immigrant2008]

Exact opposite happened to me! At first my status was "Your file was transferred to local office on Dec 30". Today the same status is there however "local office" was changed to "Guy-Favreau".

I am not sure what they are doing exactly on my file. Today for the third time in last week my status in ecas changed, this time from "Guy-Favreau office" to "Montreal" office! So now it says "Your file was transferred to Montreal office".

 

[maali]

I am not sure what they are doing exactly on my file. Today for the third time in last week my status in ecas changed, this time from "Guy-Favreau office" to "Montreal" office! So now it says "Your file was transferred to Montreal office".

Atleast they are doing some activity which you can see on ECAS. For others like me, cannot see anything but "Received" since ages.

Soon you will get test invitation. It seems the CIC officers are still learning to use ECAS, some of them are junk heads who do not even use it!