raymasa said:
I think it is when you get the AOR. If there are any issues with the application, it will be returned and not recorded in the system as "start processing". You will have to send the new corrected application, after first one is returned.
Ray
The date that will determine whether the application is governed by the old rule or new rule is definitely not the AOR date. That said, you bring up an important consideration: if the application is returned to the applicant because CIC deems it incomplete, the later date when it is resubmitted will determine if the old or new rule applies. Applicants do not know for certain that the application has been accepted as a complete application until the AOR.
Section 31 of the
SCCA specifies that applications
"made" as of the day before the new requirements take effect will be governed by the
Citizenship Act as it read the day before the new provisions take effect. This is for purposes of section 5(1)(c) of the
Citizenship Act, the adult grant citizenship requirements, including the 3/4 rule.
I am not at all certain what
"made" means in this context, except that so long as the application is complete, properly signed, fees paid, I am confident that it is made as of the date it is received by CPC . . . leaving open some question as to whether or not a complete application signed and shipped before the change takes effect but arriving at CIC after the change will be governed under the old or new provisions.
The reason the AOR is significant, again, is that until the applicant gets this, the applicant is not certain that CIC has accepted the application as complete. Returned applications subsequently submitted are not made until re-submitted.
I have seen anecdotal reports of applications returned because things like the photo-copies of Identification were enlargements and not accepted, and for other fairly technical reasons, so sure this is a concern. But so long as the application is complete and properly signed, it will be considered
made as of the date it arrives at CIC . . . or possibly the date it was signed (so long as it was complete).