My Citizenship experience, Mandamus, ATIPs and all the things related.

[ambient2]

Finally, Today at 9am Scarberia time, I became Canadian citizen.
Before saying goodbye to this forum (where I've spent 8 days in total) and removing EcAS from my homepage, I wanted to wrap up my experience with IRCC and also thank all members of this forum who shared their stories and were very helpful.

Here is my Timeline;

07/10/2014 - Application submitted Toronto GTA
03/06/2015 - Passed the test 20/20, Told by CO to wait for 4-6 weeks for the Oath letter. Mississauga
23/07/2015 - File was transferred to St.Clair CPC - (The reason of the transfer - CBSA failed to respond) St.Clair
22/06/2016 - Demand Letter from the lawyer.
03/08/2016 - Application for leave and judicial review.
16/09/2016 - DM (two weeks before submitting affidavit to the Federal Court)
30/09/2016 - Oath Ceremony Scarborough

In the period between July 2015 and September 2016
I've contacted my MP (few letters were sent on his behalf to IRCC and CBSA), Minister of Immigration (Letter sent from me through MP), Two letters were sent from me to CPC to inquire the reason of the delay. Requested 8 ATIPs from IRCC, 1 ATIP (physical scan) IRCC, 1 ATIP from CBSA. Call Center agents sent four reminders. Requested four Case specific inquiries.
There was no movement, no reason of the delay was provided.

In June I decided to go for Mandamus, I hired a citizenship lawyer (who was recommended by my Lawyer friend).
Demand letter was sent to St.Clair office with zero reaction from their side.
Application for leave and judicial review was served in 2 weeks after deadline from the demand letter.
In one month, lawyer from Department of Justice (lawyer representing IRCC ) made sure that my application for citizenship was finalized few days before my deadline to submit affidavit to the court.

Total time from submitting application to getting a citizenship - 24 Months minus one week (no RQ nor FP were requested).

One can say that I went overboard with all these requests , but bear in mind, this paranoia started after file was transferred to St.Clair office with its not so stellar reputation (people waiting for their Citizenship for 5-6-7 years in there!)



Anyway, I wish you all luck with your journey and don't let IRCC break you.



p.s. While I was writing this I've got my last ATIP, with the most delightful changes I've seen in my ATIP's history, it's hard to describe how aesthetically pleasing it is.

 

[Rigly68]

Congratulations ambient2 and all the best for your future!

 

[march2016]

Hearty Congratulations on becoming Canadian . Thanks for sharing your experience and well written.

 

[heeradeepak]

Finally, Today at 9am Scarberia time, I became Canadian citizen.
Before saying goodbye to this forum (where I've spent 8 days in total) and removing EcAS from my homepage, I wanted to wrap up my experience with IRCC and also thank all members of this forum who shared their stories and were very helpful.

Here is my Timeline;

07/10/2014 - Application submitted Toronto GTA
03/06/2015 - Passed the test 20/20, Told by CO to wait for 4-6 weeks for the Oath letter. Mississauga
23/07/2015 - File was transferred to St.Clair CPC - (The reason of the transfer - CBSA failed to respond) St.Clair
22/06/2016 - Demand Letter from the lawyer.
03/08/2016 - Application for leave and judicial review.
16/09/2016 - DM (two weeks before submitting affidavit to the Federal Court)
30/09/2016 - Oath Ceremony Scarborough

In the period between July 2015 and September 2016
I've contacted my MP (few letters were sent on his behalf to IRCC and CBSA), Minister of Immigration (Letter sent from me through MP), Two letters were sent from me to CPC to inquire the reason of the delay. Requested 8 ATIPs from IRCC, 1 ATIP (physical scan) IRCC, 1 ATIP from CBSA. Call Center agents sent four reminders. Requested four Case specific inquiries.
There was no movement, no reason of the delay was provided.

In June I decided to go for Mandamus, I hired a citizenship lawyer (who was recommended by my Lawyer friend).
Demand letter was sent to St.Clair office with zero reaction from their side.
Application for leave and judicial review was served in 2 weeks after deadline from the demand letter.
In one month, lawyer from Department of Justice (lawyer representing IRCC ) made sure that my application for citizenship was finalized few days before my deadline to submit affidavit to the court.

Total time from submitting application to getting a citizenship - 24 Months minus one week (no RQ nor FP were requested).

One can say that I went overboard with all these requests , but bear in mind, this paranoia started after file was transferred to St.Clair office with its not so stellar reputation (people waiting for their Citizenship for 5-6-7 years in there!)



Anyway, I wish you all luck with your journey and don't let IRCC break you.



p.s. While I was writing this I've got my last ATIP, with the most delightful changes I've seen in my ATIP's history, it's hard to describe how aesthetically pleasing it is.

Congratulations ambient and pray for other innocent applicants waiting for their Citizenship for 5-6-7 years.

 

[links18]

Congratulations and good for you for not taking their delay as a given. But I have to say, what is considered a delay today was generally accepted as normal processing time not too long ago. Glad things are speeding up in general, but this just proves that the excruciating delays many of us experienced under a certain government were not in the nature of the process and if more of us had filed for mandamus rather than being scared away by naysayers who said it would never work, maybe stakeholders would have gotten the message sooner and things would have changed earlier.

 

[sfaisalm]

Congratulations. The sad part is, now people have to pay heavy fees to get Citizenship. I like your way to hire a lawyer. And thank you very much to share your experience.

 

[b52shot]

It would be cool if we can keep a record of all lawyer names used by our members and their contact numbers just in case someone faces similar issues in the future.

 

[ambient2]

Buddy a question when you saw decision made

what was written in the decision made any line?

It was just "decision made", in few weeks it got updated to the Oath invitation, and after one month of taking the Oath it got updated again to - You become a citizen.

It would be cool if we can keep a record of all lawyer names used by our members and their contact numbers just in case someone faces similar issues in the future.

You do understand that this forum is hosted by the Law firm who works on Immigration cases?
Not everyone would be happy to get advertisement of different law firms on their own forum

 

[sfaisalm]

Finally all done.
Oath took more than a year after written test.
Lesson Learned
MPs don't help, they have too many calls, and as soon as you enter, they starts speaking "we can't do any thing" so nothing that they listen.
If no questionnaire is asked(which was in my case) likely there is an error in their system and no one can help except you hire a lawyer or someone detects and correct. This seems to be in my case that someone detected error and corrected.

Thanks

Mohammad

 

[Samour]

Finally, Today at 9am Scarberia time, I became Canadian citizen.
Before saying goodbye to this forum (where I've spent 8 days in total) and removing EcAS from my homepage, I wanted to wrap up my experience with IRCC and also thank all members of this forum who shared their stories and were very helpful.

Here is my Timeline;

07/10/2014 - Application submitted Toronto GTA
03/06/2015 - Passed the test 20/20, Told by CO to wait for 4-6 weeks for the Oath letter. Mississauga
23/07/2015 - File was transferred to St.Clair CPC - (The reason of the transfer - CBSA failed to respond) St.Clair
22/06/2016 - Demand Letter from the lawyer.
03/08/2016 - Application for leave and judicial review.
16/09/2016 - DM (two weeks before submitting affidavit to the Federal Court)
30/09/2016 - Oath Ceremony Scarborough

In the period between July 2015 and September 2016
I've contacted my MP (few letters were sent on his behalf to IRCC and CBSA), Minister of Immigration (Letter sent from me through MP), Two letters were sent from me to CPC to inquire the reason of the delay. Requested 8 ATIPs from IRCC, 1 ATIP (physical scan) IRCC, 1 ATIP from CBSA. Call Center agents sent four reminders. Requested four Case specific inquiries.
There was no movement, no reason of the delay was provided.

In June I decided to go for Mandamus, I hired a citizenship lawyer (who was recommended by my Lawyer friend).
Demand letter was sent to St.Clair office with zero reaction from their side.
Application for leave and judicial review was served in 2 weeks after deadline from the demand letter.
In one month, lawyer from Department of Justice (lawyer representing IRCC ) made sure that my application for citizenship was finalized few days before my deadline to submit affidavit to the court.

Total time from submitting application to getting a citizenship - 24 Months minus one week (no RQ nor FP were requested).

One can say that I went overboard with all these requests , but bear in mind, this paranoia started after file was transferred to St.Clair office with its not so stellar reputation (people waiting for their Citizenship for 5-6-7 years in there!)



Anyway, I wish you all luck with your journey and don't let IRCC break you.



p.s. While I was writing this I've got my last ATIP, with the most delightful changes I've seen in my ATIP's history, it's hard to describe how aesthetically pleasing it is.

Great story
I was in same situation but I had RQ.
Mine took 4 years

How much did the lawyer cost you?

 

[Ottawan]

Bumping this thread for those who fear that they'd pass the one year mark.