Citizenship Oath - Missed

[viharviradia]

Hi All,

Need Advise! I had my citizen oath which was reschedule couple of times as I was not in Canada. The last time when they rescheduled my oath, I still couldn’t travel to Canada to take my oath as my kids were born in India and they Permanent Residency os still under process so they cannot travel with me to Canada. My kids are just 6 months old and I cannot leave them alone and travel to Canada because if I travel to Canada and take my oath, then I need to apply for Canadian Citizenship, surrender my Indian passport, apply for Indian visa in order to travel back to my kids in india which I believe take take another couple of months.
Hence i missed my oath and inform them the whole situation. Canadian Government told me that I need to apply again for my citizenship which I don’t mind to do it once I’m back in Canada with my kids.
The question is - will this affect my future citizenship application? What are the disadvantages?
I’m in dilemma and need your advise how to process with in this situation.
Thank you

 

[dpenabill]

Hi All,

Need Advise! I had my citizen oath which was reschedule couple of times as I was not in Canada. The last time when they rescheduled my oath, I still couldn’t travel to Canada to take my oath as my kids were born in India and they Permanent Residency os still under process so they cannot travel with me to Canada. My kids are just 6 months old and I cannot leave them alone and travel to Canada because if I travel to Canada and take my oath, then I need to apply for Canadian Citizenship, surrender my Indian passport, apply for Indian visa in order to travel back to my kids in india which I believe take take another couple of months.
Hence i missed my oath and inform them the whole situation. Canadian Government told me that I need to apply again for my citizenship which I don’t mind to do it once I’m back in Canada with my kids.
The question is - will this affect my future citizenship application? What are the disadvantages?
I’m in dilemma and need your advise how to process with in this situation.
Thank you

Your situation might not be complicated, but it could be, and the prospect of that is enough to caution that you may want to consult with an immigration lawyer in Canada sooner rather than later. You do not ask about the status of the application for the kids' Canadian PR, for example, but if you are living outside Canada you are not eligible to sponsor; so if their PR "still under process" is about an application for which you are the sponsor, that could be at risk and warrant taking some precautions in how you proceed from here.

It appears that IRCC has deemed the citizenship application abandoned. That can be challenged but whether that is worth pursuing depends on a lot of factors. For example, rescheduling an oath date BEFORE the date of the oath is different from rescheduling after a failure to appear for a scheduled oath ceremony. This would be something to discuss with a lawyer as well, but time is of the essence. Even if there is a good basis for challenging a decision to dismiss an application for abandonment, the longer you wait makes that case weaker and weaker.

Re-applying for citizenship (assuming IRCC has dismissed the citizenship application based on abandonment) would be an entirely new application. So, for example, meeting the physical presence requirement will be based on presence in Canada during the five years immediately preceding the date of the new application.

If you otherwise qualify, an application dismissed for abandonment does not affect your eligibility. It may trigger additional scrutiny, and somewhat longer processing, but as long as you meet the qualifications (and of course follow through appropriately responding to requests and appearing when scheduled), it is largely as if you never applied before.

So perhaps the biggest factor is how long you have been abroad and whether it has been so long you would need to in effect start over counting days in Canada. If for example you have been outside Canada for two full years, you cannot possibly meet the presence requirement again until you have spent at least another three years in Canada. So you would have to wait at least that long to qualify again and re-apply.