Campaign to Amend Section 5 of the Citizenship Act

[scylla]

Just to add...

If you want to fix the above, tie the date / years to the submission of the PR application or the date the person becomes a PR - rather than the submission of the citizenship application. This will avoid / resolve the issue that I have raised.

 

[Beakster]

If that's what you intend the new rule to mean then you might want to change the wording to make this explicit. Right now it simply states that six years preceeding the citizenship application should be considered rather than four. Have you thought about how this rule applies to someone who does not live in Canada before becoming a PR? This effectively means that you can arrive in Canada for the very first time, become a PR and then only spend 50% of your time in Canada over the next six years (rather than the current 75% over four years) to qualify for citizenship. This is where the committment to Canada is clearly being reduced by the new rules proposed.

It is a good point and I agree with you. But in the event that the government defends the half a day per day consideration for non-PRs this is a discussion we need to involve them in. At the very least I want a representative of the government or the Canadian legal system to state these things which we are assuming. So far the only defence of section 5 I have seen is Justice Muldoon's statement where he says "It is clear that the purpose of paragraph 5(1)(c) is to ensure that everyone who is granted precious Canadian citizenship has become, or at least has been compulsorily presented with the everyday opportunity to become “Canadianized.”" Now we meet this requirement without being PRs, so I want to see a similar defence, if there is one, given by an official regarding:
1) The half day per day count of residence before getting PR.
2) The limit of 4 years for the period concerned.

This is the hard part though due to the waiting period of years to see a citizenship judge.

 

[just_do_it]

You are a pretty good Canadian...

Mike

I'm not a canadian yet. will become one officially next month though. Unfortunately, i have no choice but to be complacent untill i get the right to vote. Besides, i come from a far worse beaurocracy than this. So i'm not aware of how things are in the UK, US or anywhere else regarding processing times, vacation times etc.

You might think becoming eligible for citizenship is such a hassle, wait till you become eligible and apply for it. Having to wait 2 + years for them to process it is 10 times more frustrating. I think that's where the focus should be; reducing processing times but unfortunately they keep getting worse every year.

sure, immigrants can voice their opinions regarding the fairness of the immigration system but the actual power to change things ultimately lands in the hands of the majority vote bank i.e. native white canadians. and most of them think there is no problem with the immigration system as it is now. There's a huge chunk that want to completely shut off immigration for the time being, including some of my own friends.

So if you want to give it a shot with a campaign, kudos to you my friend. But i think i already know what's going to happen.

 

[Beakster]

You might think becoming eligible for citizenship is such a hassle, wait till you become eligible and apply for it. Having to wait 2 + years for them to process it is 10 times more frustrating. I think that's where the focus should be; reducing processing times but unfortunately they keep getting worse every year.

This is exactly the motivation. Processing times are very long, both for PR and Citizenship. The only solution to reducing processing times is to hire significantly more staff to process applications. This will be expensive so it's not an attractive option to the government. The simple change to the Citizenship Act I'm proposing would recognise the time PR applicants have spent in Canada while waiting on their application being processed. While it won't reduce the processing times it can save many of us 2 years off the total time to Citizenship. We're talking about reducing the time from arriving in Canada to becoming a Citizen from 7 years to 5 years, which is closer to what it would be if there system were not so backlogged.

 

[mikeathome]

Fact # 1 . You need just 25 people to sign your petition to submit it. BUT, majority of them should be Canadians. Petitioning th crown or parliament by foreigners exclusively is never allowed.

(...)

Count me in on this! This will be the third thing I will sign after I get citizenship; with #1 being the citizenship certificate and #2 my new Canadian passport...

The issue I have with the current process is that not all monkeys are treated the same way. Some get bananas some get the skins and whether you are in one group or the other is PURE LUCK. This is unfair, this got to be changed. Either everyone gets bananas or skins...

I hate this head-in-the-sand attitude. So far I always tried to improve things sometimes this means fighting the windmills. It got me in trouble in East Germany 25 years ago, it gets me in trouble at work from time to time BUT I rather die tryin'...

Mike

 

[canuckoz]

The only solution to reducing processing times is to hire significantly more staff to process applications.

not necessarily. in "Country A" the process takes only 2 months because of integrated technology (from online application lodgement to electronic residency entry-exit checks, electronic police checks, electronic security checks and computerised citizenship tests). no citizenship judges required, only skilled and trained staff. no merry-paper-go-round from person to person and from office to office. it's all processed using an integrated IT system - as should be expected from a First World country.

paper application forms and paper files and paper questionnaires and paper police clearances and paper such and such are so un-21st century.

 

[mikeathome]

not necessarily. in "Country A" the process takes only 2 months because of integrated technology (from online application lodgement to electronic residency entry-exit checks, electronic police checks, electronic security checks and computerised citizenship tests). no citizenship judges required, only skilled and trained staff. no merry-paper-go-round from person to person and from office to office. it's all processed using an integrated IT system - as should be expected from a First World country.

paper application forms and paper files and paper questionnaires and paper police clearances and paper such and such are so un-21st century.

... Don't forget the fact, that some of us have been asked to provide their fingerprints 3 times.

Mike

 

[Beakster]

not necessarily. in "Country A" the process takes only 2 months because of integrated technology (from online application lodgement to electronic residency entry-exit checks, electronic police checks, electronic security checks and computerised citizenship tests). no citizenship judges required, only skilled and trained staff. no merry-paper-go-round from person to person and from office to office. it's all processed using an integrated IT system - as should be expected from a First World country.

paper application forms and paper files and paper questionnaires and paper police clearances and paper such and such are so un-21st century.

Very good point. However I think a revamp of the system would also be seen as an expensive remediation even though it will have long term benefits, and ultimately save money. The point I want to make is that by amending the citizenship act to recognise all time spent in the country before PR, an MP can claim they have reduced the overall waiting time to citizenship for many applicants without making a significant financial expenditure.

 

[Msafiri]

Hi,

I am currently looking for suggestions, criticisms and support for a campaign I'm running to have the Citizenship Act amended to provided a faster and fairer route to citizenship for those of use who have lived in Canada for several years before our PR was grated or while it was being processed.

The current rules state that you must have been in Canada for 3 years before you can apply for Citizenship, but 2 years of those must have been as a permanent resident! This means that some people who had their PR processed in a matter of months are much further along on their road to citizenship than those who had to wait several years. Through no fault of our own many of us are being asked to wait an extra 2 years before we can apply for citizenship despite the fact we have been living in Canada, becoming Canadianized and contributing to the economy and to the government with our taxes.

I am now seeking to rectify this with an amendment to the Citizenship Act that would recognise the time we have spent in Canada waiting for our PR applications to be processed as being the same as time spent after PR is granted. I hope that the result of this will be that for those of us who have been in Canada for over 3 years before being granted PR status, we will be eligible to apply for Citizenship as soon as our PR is granted.

If you would like to find out more about the campaign please look at the website http://citizenshipact.ca, join the facebook group linked on there and spread the word to other immigrants in the same situation.

If you have any questions or criticisms please post them here for discussion

Thanks

There is no political mileage in this proposal so this will be consigned to the 'not a priority' list. That Parliament can't even resolve the 'residence' criteria for Citizenship several decades into the Citizenship Act tells you the kind of hurdle you face. Good luck though.

 

[canuckoz]

... Don't forget the fact, that some of us have been asked to provide their fingerprints 3 times.

Mike

that surely is going to take a lot of time to process. if the processing times don't improve dramatically the paper files keep piling up and up and will become a mountain which will further extend processing times.