Failed to submit Residence questionnaire within 45 days period

[Spectrum]

Hello Experts please help.

I applied for Canadian citizen ship after staying all required number of days in Canada. I went out of the country for few months and after coming back to Canada I realized that CIC sent me Notice for Residence questionnaire to submit with in 45 days. Now I failed to submit my response with in 45 days from the date of the Notice they sent.

Can anybody Help me what are my next steps should be ? Any idea what happens to my application ? Anybody gone through this situation please post your experiences and point me in right direction

Thanks in advance and Appreciate the help...

Regards

 

[Lorris]

Send a letter to the CIC office where you are required to submit the RQ, to the attention of the same officer who's name is on your RQ request letter. Explain your circumstances and ask for extension. I'm pretty sure they'll give you one.

 

[Spectrum]

Thank you Lorris for quick response... Unfortunately there is no officer name on the letter they sent... But I am thinking to send a request asking for extension to the office (I hope somebody will notice and put it in my file)

Any body can direct me to the links in this forum who had this situation please....

Thanks

 

[Newbie2014]

I went out of the country for few months and after coming back to Canada I realized that CIC sent me Notice for Residence questionnaire to submit with in 45 days. Now I failed to submit my response with in 45 days from the date of the Notice they sent. ... Any idea what happens to my application ?

I believe that your file is considered abandoned, and they close it:
cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2012/ob476.asp

"Applicants are given 45 business days to provide the completed RQ and supporting documents. Once the 45 business day deadline has elapsed, a one-week grace period may be given to the applicant to provide the RQ and supporting documents. After the grace period, the local office is to issue a final notice to the applicant by registered mail (or equivalent). The final notice will give the applicant an additional 30 business days to provide the RQ and supporting documents. If the applicant does not comply with CIC’s request after the 30 business days in the final notice, the local office will record the application as abandoned. Afterwards, no further action will be taken on the file."

 

[links18]

I believe that your file is considered abandoned, and they close it:
cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2012/ob476.asp

"Applicants are given 45 business days to provide the completed RQ and supporting documents. Once the 45 business day deadline has elapsed, a one-week grace period may be given to the applicant to provide the RQ and supporting documents. After the grace period, the local office is to issue a final notice to the applicant by registered mail (or equivalent). The final notice will give the applicant an additional 30 business days to provide the RQ and supporting documents. If the applicant does not comply with CIC's request after the 30 business days in the final notice, the local office will record the application as abandoned. Afterwards, no further action will be taken on the file."

So this begs the question, did the OP get a final notice and an additional 30 days? Or has the OB you cite been superseded?

 

[Newbie2014]

Or has the OB you cite been superseded?

Hmmm. It appears that it has been superceded by Operational Bulletin 476-B, effective August 07, 2013. Now they may not even bother sending you a second notice:
cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/bulletins/2013/ob476B.asp

"One final notice (see GCMS form CIT 0513) may be sent to such applicants requesting that they provide the RQ and supporting documents. If the RQ is not provided, the application is to be deemed abandoned. ... Applications that are abandoned as a result of an RQ not being submitted upon request must also be closed immediately in GCMS.”

 

[eileenf]

1. As stated in OB 476 and on the RQ form itself, you have 45 BUSINESS DAYS, not 45 days. This means you have 9 weeks from the date on the RQ cover letter to send something back, not 6 1/2 weeks. You did not explain how long ago the RQ arrived, but you may still have time. Even if the 9 weeks have run out, I still recommend filling out the RQ, collecting all the documents you can, and sending it back (unless you did not complete your 1095 days honestly, or lied on application. If so, you will need to talk to a lawyer and reapply when you qualify honestly.)

2. If you send back RQ, include a cover letter listing the information that you will send later due to deadline concerns (like provincial health records). It's important to get something back to them, but it doesn't have to be everything all at once.

3. PLEASE scan your RQ and PLEASE send me a copy. Scribble out all your personal info. I will photoshop out the scribbles and post it on the RQ blog. So far, none of the thousands of recipients of the new RQ (CIT 0171 10-2013) has made it public. Many people, the sort of people who helpfully answer questions on forums such as these, would like to see the new RQ so they can better know what they are talking about. Future applicants would like to see it. It would really help out a lot of people if you could scan your RQ.

4. In the future, you need to inform CIC any time you leave Canada for 2 weeks or more. That way, they will be less likely to send important, time sensitive forms when you're gone.

 

[IBMER]

@Spectrum:
I would recommend *calling* CIC right away and explaining your scenario. If you're going to do that, you would do well to have a definitive timeline in mind by when you'll reply to the RQ.
Give them a plausible reason and I hope your case will get through. Good luck and keep us posted.