February 2016 Applications

[Cappuccino]

Congrats Cappuccino..so my guess earlier on your ecas update was correct!
May I please know if your oath is in Surrey or Vancouver?
Probably we can expect ours in 2-3 weeks time and long before the PR expires in December.

Well this times very well for us. We are on holiday (in Canada) from Saturday for 2 weeks until 14th August.

Then I am travelling on business to the USA at the end of September - really wanted Canadian passport for that since with neither passport nor the PR card surrendered at the ceremony I'd technically have no valid travel document to re-enter Canada as a worker. With just over 1 month between Oath Ceremony and my US trip, should be plenty of time to get the Canadian passport.

 

[Cappuccino]

Incidentally it seems my eCAS detail line has started working again since they put the line in about the Oath ceremony. However, still nothing there about the test invitation so I am guessing that must have bugged copying across with the eCAS automated system.

My eCAS currently looks like this :-

We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on February 4, 2016.
We sent you correspondence acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on February 17, 2016.
We started processing your application on February 21, 2016.
We sent you a notice on July 26, 2016 to appear and take the oath of citizenship at the citizenship ceremony to be held on August 22, 2016 at 8:30 AM. The notice you will receive will be your official confirmation of your appointment. If you have not received this notice prior to the date of your scheduled appointment, please contact us.

 

[Crafty]

Incidentally it seems my eCAS detail line has started working again since they put the line in about the Oath ceremony. However, still nothing there about the test invitation so I am guessing that must have bugged copying across with the eCAS automated system.

My eCAS currently looks like this :-

We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on February 4, 2016.
We sent you correspondence acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on February 17, 2016.
We started processing your application on February 21, 2016.
We sent you a notice on July 26, 2016 to appear and take the oath of citizenship at the citizenship ceremony to be held on August 22, 2016 at 8:30 AM. The notice you will receive will be your official confirmation of your appointment. If you have not received this notice prior to the date of your scheduled appointment, please contact us.

Congratulations Cappuccino!

Mine looks like this..
We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on February 29, 2016.
We sent you correspondence acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on March 7, 2016.
We started processing your application on March 10, 2016.

Hoping to hear about my test invite soon...returned my expired i-94 at the airport couple of days back.
Does anyone have experience of having an expired I-94 that was an issue during the process?

 

[Crafty]

Incidentally it seems my eCAS detail line has started working again since they put the line in about the Oath ceremony. However, still nothing there about the test invitation so I am guessing that must have bugged copying across with the eCAS automated system.

My eCAS currently looks like this :-

We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on February 4, 2016.
We sent you correspondence acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on February 17, 2016.
We started processing your application on February 21, 2016.
We sent you a notice on July 26, 2016 to appear and take the oath of citizenship at the citizenship ceremony to be held on August 22, 2016 at 8:30 AM. The notice you will receive will be your official confirmation of your appointment. If you have not received this notice prior to the date of your scheduled appointment, please contact us.

Just wondering, if the test invite was sent by post and I never received it. And ECAS does not update their site regularly, or miss an update completely like yours.
So in this case, there is no way I can find out what's going on with my application.

I hope they don't cancel my application because I did not attend the test, that will be very discouraging.

 

[calola11]

I would also suggest you print copies of i94 from the US border controls site if you made any trips to the US during the 6 years prior to your application.

When I had my interview they were quite grateful I'd printed the i94 out - and might just save you a residency questionnaire and therefore delays.

I took all my original certificates but they didn't seem interested in the language proof (presumably since they could talk to me to validate language) - mainly the passports and proof of landing etc.

Even though the request letter asked for copies of the bio pages to be brought with us, they didn't ask to see or keep the copies.

Hope this helps,

Thank you Cappuccino for the tip about printing the I94 form, the official liked it. We passed everything and npw waiting for the Oath invite!

 

[Cappuccino]

Just wondering, if the test invite was sent by post and I never received it. And ECAS does not update their site regularly, or miss an update completely like yours.
So in this case, there is no way I can find out what's going on with my application.

I hope they don't cancel my application because I did not attend the test, that will be very discouraging.

Hi - most people DO get a line in their ECAS saying that they sent a test invitation out. It just seems to have bugged in our case.

And yes that was the worry for us with the Oath ceremony once we figured our test ECAS entry was bugged. If the same happened for the Oath, and the letter they sent out got lost or went to the wrong house, we'd have literally no way to know we were supposed to turn up to the Oath ceremony.

I think CIC should send everything by email - sure send some stuff by regular mail too if it needs signing, but I mean any status change such as test invite or oath invite the applicant should be notified by email.

And/or just make ECAS work properly and be more reliable!

 

[Cappuccino]

Thank you Cappuccino for the tip about printing the I94 form, the official liked it. We passed everything and npw waiting for the Oath invite!

Hi you are welcome, and congratulations

Printing out i94 saves the officials time and IMO anything the applicant can do to shorten the journey to an approval is worth doing. And also I think providing the i94 information reduces the chance that the applicant might get a residency questionairre.

 

[Crafty]

Hi - most people DO get a line in their ECAS saying that they sent a test invitation out. It just seems to have bugged in our case.

And yes that was the worry for us with the Oath ceremony once we figured our test ECAS entry was bugged. If the same happened for the Oath, and the letter they sent out got lost or went to the wrong house, we'd have literally no way to know we were supposed to turn up to the Oath ceremony.

I think CIC should send everything by email - sure send some stuff by regular mail too if it needs signing, but I mean any status change such as test invite or oath invite the applicant should be notified by email.

And/or just make ECAS work properly and be more reliable!

Thank you very much for your reply... I got my test invite last week (test on Aug23). Could not update the status earlier as I was busy with other things.
I agree, the notification system/process needs to be more robust. I will print the I-94's as well as per your suggestion.

Crafty

 

[ajithpl]

I got my Oath scheduled for Sep 21, 2016 and the date is exactly 3 months after my test. I'm yet to get the letter, but was updated with the info on eCAS.
My wife has just started the journey as she applied last month and is now in process.

 

[Cappuccino]

Hi all,

Well my wife and I had our Oath Ceremony this morning and got our Citizenship Certificates, so that's the end of the journey for us. Around 2.5 months after our test, around 6.5 months after applying

They ask in the invitation to bring all your documents you applied with - but they only seemed interested in the landing papers, PR card and the invitation form.

We got there 8.30 and first half an hour is the official checking everyone's documents before they go into the ceremony room. Ceremony started about 9.10 am and was finished by 10.00 am.


Best of luck to everyone else still waiting.

 

[ajithpl]

Hi all,

Well my wife and I had our Oath Ceremony this morning and got our Citizenship Certificates, so that's the end of the journey for us. Around 2.5 months after our test, around 6.5 months after applying

They ask in the invitation to bring all your documents you applied with - but they only seemed interested in the landing papers, PR card and the invitation form.

We got there 8.30 and first half an hour is the official checking everyone's documents before they go into the ceremony room. Ceremony started about 9.10 am and was finished by 10.00 am.


Best of luck to everyone else still waiting.

Congrats Wayne. I understand yours was Surrey office. Will they allow 1-2 family members/ friends for the oath?

 

[Cappuccino]

Congrats Wayne. I understand yours was Surrey office. Will they allow 1-2 family members/ friends for the oath?

Hi. There were 2 of us and we brought 2 people for the oath. They didn't seem to have a limit as such. The center chairs were for the candidates and the left, right and back sets of chairs were for family and friends to sit.

 

[ajithpl]

That's good to know Wayne. My eCAS is already updated with the oath details stating the letter was send on Aug 18 for the Sep 21 ceremony; but have not yet got the letter by mail. For all the activities, eCAS was very prompt in updating the details as and when it happened.

 

[canadavisa22]

Hi all,

Well my wife and I had our Oath Ceremony this morning and got our Citizenship Certificates, so that's the end of the journey for us. Around 2.5 months after our test, around 6.5 months after applying

They ask in the invitation to bring all your documents you applied with - but they only seemed interested in the landing papers, PR card and the invitation form.

We got there 8.30 and first half an hour is the official checking everyone's documents before they go into the ceremony room. Ceremony started about 9.10 am and was finished by 10.00 am.


Best of luck to everyone else still waiting.

Hi Cappucino,

First, congrats again. I'm just beginning to look into the process and chose this thread because I will be eligible to apply at the end of February 2017. Do you think your case was an exception in that it only took 6.5 months to complete? Is it because of the office you applied through? I was reading on CIC that the application processing time is 12 months, so I'm hoping to set some realistic expectations. I am a USC that's been here almost 4 years but have to wait till end of Feb next year to account for time spent outside of the country on vacations. Thanks!

 

[Cappuccino]

Hi Cappucino,

First, congrats again. I'm just beginning to look into the process and chose this thread because I will be eligible to apply at the end of February 2017. Do you think your case was an exception in that it only took 6.5 months to complete? Is it because of the office you applied through? I was reading on CIC that the application processing time is 12 months, so I'm hoping to set some realistic expectations. I am a USC that's been here almost 4 years but have to wait till end of Feb next year to account for time spent outside of the country on vacations. Thanks!

If you look at the 4/6 spreadsheet you will see a pattern for the average processing times. It varies from case to case - some people actually go from application receive to Oath Ceremony in only 3 or 4 months. Others take over 6 months but I think *MOST* will complete in 7 months or less.

Best of luck