Citizenship Certificate After Oath
- Thread starter thesonicbro
- Start date
Wrote to IRCC:
Dear Minister Fraser,
I write to express my concerns about the delay in dispatching citizenship certificates to applicants who have completed virtual citizenship oath ceremonies across the domestic offices in Canada.
The expected timeline stated in the oath instruction letter is 2-4 weeks after oath taking. However, there are more and more people having to wait anxiously for longer, especially from the Calgary region. Some even waited for months, having to contact MPs, being stressed out before they got the paper that they are entitled to receive right after becoming citizens.
Back then when citizenship ceremonies were hosted in-person at IRCC local offices, people would receive their certificates right after taking the oath. Within 24 hours, they were able to apply for a Canadian passport and have access to freedom of travel available to all Canadian citizens. Now after the ceremony has moved into virtual format, the wait time plus postal delay is much longer. New citizens are required to cut their PR cards at the event, yet until the physical certificate is in hand, they are not provided with any means to travel outside of Canada if an urgent travel warrants. This adds another layer of stress after an awfully long delay for citizenship processing due to COVID. On the legal side, I wonder if limiting the freedom of travel of citizens substantially due to your department’s administrative delay, is unconstitutional.
So here is my suggestion:
1. Please work with your local offices to make sure certificates are prepared in advance, and can be mailed out right after the Oath ceremonies without delay. There is no reason it has to be processed in 2-4 weeks when people have already become citizens. Some offices may be understaffed due to the pandemic restrictions but this is a task that cannot be avoided
2. Please explore options to digitize citizenship certificates, meaning to send the confirmation of citizenship by email and people should be able to apply for a passport with that confirmation or a digital proof of their citizenship. Passport Canada is a federal program managed by IRCC and I do not see why the two systems cannot communicate to each other. I do not understand why passport applications MUST come with the original citizenship certificate. There are ways for you to check and you certainly do not rely on a piece of paper to confirm one’s citizenship. So why bother with paper, which adds more stress for new citizens and workload for your staff?
I hope you can take some time to review my suggestion and see if changes can be made right away. As reported many times by the media (CBC, The Star, etc), the citizenship processing has been heavily impacted by the pandemic over the past two years - many have been suffering from the long wait already. The last step in this process should be the easiest part for your staff, and also an opportunity to make new citizens be assured their journey with IRCC is over in a smooth way.
Very best regards,
Dear Minister Fraser,
I write to express my concerns about the delay in dispatching citizenship certificates to applicants who have completed virtual citizenship oath ceremonies across the domestic offices in Canada.
The expected timeline stated in the oath instruction letter is 2-4 weeks after oath taking. However, there are more and more people having to wait anxiously for longer, especially from the Calgary region. Some even waited for months, having to contact MPs, being stressed out before they got the paper that they are entitled to receive right after becoming citizens.
Back then when citizenship ceremonies were hosted in-person at IRCC local offices, people would receive their certificates right after taking the oath. Within 24 hours, they were able to apply for a Canadian passport and have access to freedom of travel available to all Canadian citizens. Now after the ceremony has moved into virtual format, the wait time plus postal delay is much longer. New citizens are required to cut their PR cards at the event, yet until the physical certificate is in hand, they are not provided with any means to travel outside of Canada if an urgent travel warrants. This adds another layer of stress after an awfully long delay for citizenship processing due to COVID. On the legal side, I wonder if limiting the freedom of travel of citizens substantially due to your department’s administrative delay, is unconstitutional.
So here is my suggestion:
1. Please work with your local offices to make sure certificates are prepared in advance, and can be mailed out right after the Oath ceremonies without delay. There is no reason it has to be processed in 2-4 weeks when people have already become citizens. Some offices may be understaffed due to the pandemic restrictions but this is a task that cannot be avoided
2. Please explore options to digitize citizenship certificates, meaning to send the confirmation of citizenship by email and people should be able to apply for a passport with that confirmation or a digital proof of their citizenship. Passport Canada is a federal program managed by IRCC and I do not see why the two systems cannot communicate to each other. I do not understand why passport applications MUST come with the original citizenship certificate. There are ways for you to check and you certainly do not rely on a piece of paper to confirm one’s citizenship. So why bother with paper, which adds more stress for new citizens and workload for your staff?
I hope you can take some time to review my suggestion and see if changes can be made right away. As reported many times by the media (CBC, The Star, etc), the citizenship processing has been heavily impacted by the pandemic over the past two years - many have been suffering from the long wait already. The last step in this process should be the easiest part for your staff, and also an opportunity to make new citizens be assured their journey with IRCC is over in a smooth way.
Very best regards,
Hi
I took the citizenship oath on march.04.2022 and my file closed on march.07.2022 ,still waiting for my certificate.
I took the citizenship oath on march.04.2022 and my file closed on march.07.2022 ,still waiting for my certificate.
Does anyone know what application closed means? Does it mean that oath letter (that is the form sent after oath ceremony) is accepted or does it mean that Citizenship Certificate is printed?
Mexontario
Hero Member
- Sep 9, 2020
- 311
- Category........
- FSW
- Visa Office......
- Ottawa
- App. Filed.......
- 02-05-2014
- Doc's Request.
- 23-06-2014
- AOR Received.
- 04-06-2014
- File Transfer...
- 23-06-2014
- Med's Request
- 23-06-2014
- Med's Done....
- 07-08-2014
- Passport Req..
- 26-09-2014
- VISA ISSUED...
- 18-11-2014
- LANDED..........
- 04-04-2015
That means they have accepted your signed oath form. Your certificate is probably printed, but there no correlation that it was mailed. There is no proper data to predict when the certificates are mailed after closed date. I guess they do it by batches but again, no correlation.
Providing the certificate timelines after Oath
Oath on - Mar 12, 2022
Application closed on tracker - Mar 14, 2022
Certificated mailed - Mar 14, 2022
Received the certificate - Mar 17, 2022
Scarborough applicant - Single - Online
Oath on - Mar 12, 2022
Application closed on tracker - Mar 14, 2022
Certificated mailed - Mar 14, 2022
Received the certificate - Mar 17, 2022
Scarborough applicant - Single - Online
Wow.. Congrats.
I took my oath on March 12th as well. I know the application got close on Mar14th. How do you know they mailed your certificate?
have sent an email to the same email id, where i sent the oath form, and they confirmed it was mailed on Mar 14th
If you don’t mind me asking. How long did it take for them to call you back to confirm the appointment? I submitted a request online on the 11th but I have not received a call yet. I called them today and the agent said they have a high volume of requests and 2 business days isn’t calculated the way we think it is. I should expect a call soon. He didn’t offer to book me an appointment although I told him I have a ticket booked for April which is within the next 25 business business days. He then said worse case scenario I should all within 2 business days of the flight for urgent processing.
Yes, I did just the morning of my travel date. I collected on 8th 10:00 AM and had my flight at 6:30 in the night. Came back on late night on 9th. It went well.
Glad to hear. I have an early flight. I requested an appointment online since the 11th but I have not heard back from them yet and I have a travel date for April 16th. I’m hoping they will call soon otherwise I will be left with the option of calling for processing within 2 business days but my flight is early in the morning on the 16th so now I’m worried. Did they consider the timing of your flight when they told you the pick up time?