glass77 said:
hello,
I just applied for my citizenship application and was going through the CIC website and say While we process your application, you should only contact CIC if:
•you change your address,
•you plan to leave Canada for more than two weeks in a row,
Bang on my head, should I inform them or is it ok not to inform them kind of confused after reading lot of info in the forum.
Do I write a letter and send it to them or inform the call center agent that I will be leaving Canada for a month.
IS IT REALLY MANDATORY TO INFORM THEM ?
the website says that it needs to be informed to any advice on this would be really helpful.
The responses by
sept15 and
Juney cover this.
What
thecoolguysam observed is the concern:
"The main reason is that if you don't tell cic and go away for one month you might miss important correspondance from CIC like test invite/additional documentation etc etc. ideally you should inform CIC"
But as
sept15 and
Juney suggest, there is little risk of a problem in the two months immediately following submission of the application, since it takes this long for CIC to actually open the package, screen for completeness, and do the other initial checks done at CPC Sydney.
That said, it would be prudent to be sure someone you trust is collecting your mail and you can trust them to examine the contents of any correspondence from CIC, and to notify you if there is an immediate need to respond to a request for information or documents. This is not likely to happen this soon after applying, but it is better to avoid taking chances.
glass77 said:
hi beahoue,
I think I am going to do that too, since I just submitted my application so I don't think I need to worry too much so once I am back I wil inform the CIC agents.
I BELIEVE THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY IF I INFORM THEM LATER, Seniors Advise please.
There is no reason to notify CIC of a temporary absence
after the fact.
There is a distinction between what an applicant is
required to report, versus what an applicant can choose to report to CIC, relative to travel while an application is pending.
It is
mandatory to report any material change in the information submitted in the application, and the applicant signs an agreement to do just that (it is part of the signature box on the application). Thus, for example, it is mandatory to notify CIC of a change in residential address (recognizing many do not and still do not have a problem -- but that is more or less about
getting-away-with-it).
The instruction to notify CIC of travel more than two weeks abroad is to avoid scheduling the applicant for an event the applicant cannot attend, or requesting a response from the applicant which due to the travel the applicant might not be able to timely meet. Remember, the failure to attend a scheduled event or timely respond to requests from CIC constitutes grounds to
terminate the application as
abandoned unless the applicant can provide a
reasonable excuse, and generally travel abroad is
NOT an accepted excuse.
The applicant who fails to notify CIC of travel plans thus accepts the risk that he or she might fail to get a notice or request from CIC in time.
But as
beauhoe suggested, informing CIC of travel abroad can result in a hold on processing for significantly longer than one might anticipate.
Regarding post-application stamps in passport:
Contrary to the suggestion by
MUFC, there is no indication that ordinary, brief trips abroad after applying will have any negative impact on the processing of a citizenship application. Sure, stamps reflecting a return to Canada just in time to attend the test can cause CIC to elevate its scrutiny, issue RQ. Sure, stamps or other travel indications indicating living or working abroad can similarly invite elevated scrutiny. Thus, for example, stamps showing a pattern of frequent travel abroad could trigger questions.
Ordinary holidays or brief business trips abroad after applying should not be the least bit problematic.
I was outside Canada several times during the eight months between when I applied and I took the oath, although just a bit over two weeks was the longest trip I took and the others were for a few days at a time.
