Petitioning New Government to bring back 3 year Residency Requirement etc

[rmorgan]

Greetings everyone,

After watching the campaign unfold, the inauguration day coverage, and particularly CBC's Peter Manbridge's "Behind the Scenes with Justin Trudeau On His 1st Day as PM", I think we can all agree that we are VERY fortunate to be permanent residents of this great country. Wow!!

Part of the Liberal's Election Platform was to make amendments to Bill C-24. Prime Minister Trudeau promised "to repeal the unfair elements of Bill C-24...." Can't seem to post the link. Just google "Trudeau Bill C-24" and it is the first or second video.

They are focused on repealing the portions of the bill related to revoking the citizenship of Canadians who are found guilty of terrorism etc to drive home the "a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian" message. Unfortunately, that repeal will AFFECT ONLY future Canadian terrorists (for whom I do not have any sympathy). The repeal will (hopefully) affect NONE of the people on this forum.

So I thought, why not suggest to the Liberal Government to do something that WILL AFFECT us all. Such as amending C-24 to bring back the 3 years residency requirement out of 4 years before we are eligible to apply for citizenship (instead of the current 4 years out of 6 years residency requirement with at least 6 months per year).

Friends on the forum are welcome to offer any other suggestions. Within the next few days we should have a rough idea of what matters. I propose that subsequently (with a week or so) we can draft a letter - perhaps put it in the form of a petition on Change.org - incorporating the most relevant/reasonable suggestions and then send it out to The Honorable John McCallum, P.C., Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Refugees. And, of course, with copy endorsed to the Right Honorable Justin P. J. Trudeau, P.C., Prime Minister of Canada.

Friends who have chatted with John McCallum about six months back, mentioned that he seemed to be a very kind and reasonable person. We can all agree that we are lucky to have such a friendly and genuinely empathetic Prime Minister as well. I would guess they would be pretty busy and focused on their campaign promise of getting in the 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year. At the same time, we should also apprise them of some changes in C-24 which will really matter to all of us on this forum as well.

 

[tds69us]

Greetings everyone,

After watching the campaign unfold, the inauguration day coverage, and particularly CBC's Peter Manbridge's "Behind the Scenes with Justin Trudeau On His 1st Day as PM", I think we can all agree that we are VERY fortunate to be permanent residents of this great country. Wow!!

Part of the Liberal's Election Platform was to make amendments to Bill C-24. Prime Minister Trudeau promised "to repeal the unfair elements of Bill C-24...." Can't seem to post the link. Just google "Trudeau Bill C-24" and it is the first or second video.

They are focused on repealing the portions of the bill related to revoking the citizenship of Canadians who are found guilty of terrorism etc to drive home the "a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian" message. Unfortunately, that repeal will AFFECT ONLY future Canadian terrorists (for whom I do not have any sympathy). The repeal will (hopefully) affect NONE of the people on this forum.

So I thought, why not suggest to the Liberal Government to do something that WILL AFFECT us all. Such as amending C-24 to bring back the 3 years residency requirement out of 4 years before we are eligible to apply for citizenship (instead of the current 4 years out of 6 years residency requirement with at least 6 months per year).

Friends on the forum are welcome to offer any other suggestions. Within the next few days we should have a rough idea of what matters. I propose that subsequently (with a week or so) we can draft a letter - perhaps put it in the form of a petition on Change.org - incorporating the most relevant/reasonable suggestions and then send it out to The Honorable John McCallum, P.C., Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Refugees. And, of course, with copy endorsed to the Right Honorable Justin P. J. Trudeau, P.C., Prime Minister of Canada.

Friends who have chatted with John McCallum about six months back, mentioned that he seemed to be a very kind and reasonable person. We can all agree that we are lucky to have such a friendly and genuinely empathetic Prime Minister as well. I would guess they would be pretty busy and focused on their campaign promise of getting in the 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year. At the same time, we should also apprise them of some changes in C-24 which will really matter to all of us on this forum as well.

its too late to do that...the CIC folks already adjusted to the 4 out 6 system, what you're asking is to open a flood gate of applications that the CIC was never able to handle in the first place.

 

[chikloo]

Greetings everyone,

After watching the campaign unfold, the inauguration day coverage, and particularly CBC's Peter Manbridge's "Behind the Scenes with Justin Trudeau On His 1st Day as PM", I think we can all agree that we are VERY fortunate to be permanent residents of this great country. Wow!!

Part of the Liberal's Election Platform was to make amendments to Bill C-24. Prime Minister Trudeau promised "to repeal the unfair elements of Bill C-24...." Can't seem to post the link. Just google "Trudeau Bill C-24" and it is the first or second video.

They are focused on repealing the portions of the bill related to revoking the citizenship of Canadians who are found guilty of terrorism etc to drive home the "a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian" message. Unfortunately, that repeal will AFFECT ONLY future Canadian terrorists (for whom I do not have any sympathy). The repeal will (hopefully) affect NONE of the people on this forum.

So I thought, why not suggest to the Liberal Government to do something that WILL AFFECT us all. Such as amending C-24 to bring back the 3 years residency requirement out of 4 years before we are eligible to apply for citizenship (instead of the current 4 years out of 6 years residency requirement with at least 6 months per year).

Friends on the forum are welcome to offer any other suggestions. Within the next few days we should have a rough idea of what matters. I propose that subsequently (with a week or so) we can draft a letter - perhaps put it in the form of a petition on Change.org - incorporating the most relevant/reasonable suggestions and then send it out to The Honorable John McCallum, P.C., Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Refugees. And, of course, with copy endorsed to the Right Honorable Justin P. J. Trudeau, P.C., Prime Minister of Canada.

Friends who have chatted with John McCallum about six months back, mentioned that he seemed to be a very kind and reasonable person. We can all agree that we are lucky to have such a friendly and genuinely empathetic Prime Minister as well. I would guess they would be pretty busy and focused on their campaign promise of getting in the 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year. At the same time, we should also apprise them of some changes in C-24 which will really matter to all of us on this forum as well.

Petitions wont work. If and only if the Immigration minister thinks that it wont have any repercussions he will change it. See including pre PR time may make sense as that is also part of living and PR just solidifies your life here in Canada but there is no concrete reason to reduce longer residency duration. If you are planning to stay here your entire life that 1 year should not be an issue. I support 3/4 rule as I benefited through it but rest of the Canada (Canadian -Non immigrants) may not.

You can try your best it won't hurt the cause. If you get some traction and if many support 100000 plus signatures then they may look at it.

All the best.

 

[rmorgan]

Petitions wont work. If and only if the Immigration minister thinks that it wont have any repercussions he will change it. See including pre PR time may make sense as that is also part of living and PR just solidifies your life here in Canada but there is no concrete reason to reduce longer residency duration. If you are planning to stay here your entire life that 1 year should not be an issue. I support 3/4 rule as I benefited through it but rest of the Canada (Canadian -Non immigrants) may not.

You can try your best it won't hurt the cause. If you get some traction and if many support 100000 plus signatures then they may look at it.

All the best.

Thanks for your comments. I HAVE decided to spend the major portion of my life here in Canada, so I agree with you that an extra year of residency doesn't hurt. Just wanted to get Citizenship earlier which would make my business travels a lot easier (visa free for the most part).

Let me see what traction my post gets, and if not too many people are excited we can let it fade away

Maybe it would be more constructive to urge everyone interested to just write to their MP suggesting that s/he should pass on this residency reduction suggestion to the Minister ???

All the best

 

[chikloo]

Thanks for your comments. I HAVE decided to spend the major portion of my life here in Canada, so I agree with you that an extra year of residency doesn't hurt. Just wanted to get Citizenship earlier which would make my business travels a lot easier (visa free for the most part).

Let me see what traction my post gets, and if not too many people are excited we can let it fade away

Maybe it would be more constructive to urge everyone interested to just write to their MP suggesting that s/he should pass on this residency reduction suggestion to the Minister ???

All the best

If your business travel is to US you can get Nexus card which will make the trips easier. This you can get even if you are PR (2 Yrs of PR required)

 

[surgi]

Hi Morgan
Thank you for your thread. Please think positive and do not listen to those who are professional in disappointing the others? Yes I think it is possible to consider the 3/4 years especially for those who were landed in Canada before 11th June 2015. If you can star this petition on change.org we will support it. I think it is a possibility that it finds acceptance within the ministry of immigration as the old system is still there and can be used as well.

 

[rmorgan]

Thanks Chikloo and Surgi for the positive thoughts.

I contacted my friend who had met John McCallum several months ago. He seemed confident that the new Government would bring back the 3/4 requirement in addition to repealing the two tier citizenship portions of Bill C-24. Still that is only heresay.

I checked the previous Repeal C-24 Petition at Change dot org, which was set up over a year ago. That one was addressed to the previous Government and had so far attracted about 118,000 supporters. I am not sure we will get that amount of traction if we launch a petition for the 3/4 requirement. It may be better as someone suggested on a similar thread (Will Justin Trudea Reduce Cititzenship Days) for each of us to write a letter to Minister John McCallum, and to our local MP.

Accordingly, this is probably the last post I make on this thread. Might start a new one and provide a form letter to the Minister and to the MP that people can sign and then send/email/fax themselves.

Cheers.

 

[surgi]

Thanks Chikloo and Surgi for the positive thoughts.

I contacted my friend who had met John McCallum several months ago. He seemed confident that the new Government would bring back the 3/4 requirement in addition to repealing the two tier citizenship portions of Bill C-24. Still that is only heresay.

I checked the previous Repeal C-24 Petition at Change dot org, which was set up over a year ago. That one was addressed to the previous Government and had so far attracted about 118,000 supporters. I am not sure we will get that amount of traction if we launch a petition for the 3/4 requirement. It may be better as someone suggested on a similar thread (Will Justin Trudea Reduce Cititzenship Days) for each of us to write a letter to Minister John McCallum, and to our local MP.

Accordingly, this is probably the last post I make on this thread. Might start a new one and provide a form letter to the Minister and to the MP that people can sign and then send/email/fax themselves.

Cheers.

I have an appoint with MP in my area in 2 weeks for the same purpose. She is liberal and she is very positive. I hope I can meet the minister through her or at least write a letter to him to be handled personally.

 

[keesio]

The conservatives ran on a platform in 2011 to prioritize making citizenship requirements more strict. Even with a majority government, it took them 4 years to make those changes take effect. Even if the liberals want to change the rules back to 3/4, it is not going to happen immediately. If anything, it would make sense if they try to make the changes take effect just before the next election in 4 years like what happened with c-24 in the first place (so it is fresh in voter's minds)

 

[sashali78]

Bringing a petition to achieve a significant amount of votes is not as easy as it looks, it requires a lot of effort, money and time. Also, petition by itself is not going to work, you will need to work a lot to bring this petition to the right people, media and MPs and even then it is not guaranteed to make any difference. I am talking about all this from my personal experience.
Also consider the fact that although there were a lot of objection to Bill C-24 on many points such as revocation of citizenship, intention to reside, pre-PR time, etc, no party really objected the increase in residence requirements. Why? Well, because it does make sense and it is being supported by majority of Canadians.
Now , take into account a new party coming to power, trying to reform offices and deliver at least partially on its pre-election promises, I am in (serious) doubt that this issue will be even considered.

 

[surgi]

Conservative could pass their bills in one or 2 years from the time they were elected. Means that by 2013 bill C 24 and C 51 could be a law by 2013. They chose to achieve this near elections of 2015 to be part of their propaganda and to attract more voters. Fortunately this was a big mistake . They could not estimate the power of communities and new Canadians provocation. If you notice the conservative won 2011 elections with about 5.5 millions voters. They lost 2015 elections with 5.5 millions voters too! That what I said before the election in another thread. Their mass of voter is steady. The winner who will be able to move the mass of non voters and let them vote for his party. Herpes did his best to mobilize those people to do a strategic vote and the liberals win! I here nearly sure actions of change will not take that much,especially if McCallum is the immigration minister.

 

[Adnan34]

Hi rmorgan,
I support to start the petition and I think you will get overwhelming support.
Best of luck

 

[ilotey]

Hello,

I think starting a petition is an excellent idea and im sure it will be sucessfull.

Indi

 

[Jack999999]

First of all,

I would like to congratulate Mr. Justin Trudeau for his excellency as a PM.

I am one of those permanent residents in Canada arrived this Aug., and would like to request from Mr. John McCallum to allow us use the 3 out 4 years to apply for Citizenship instead of 4 out of 6.

God Bless this Government.

 

[itsmyid]

I don't think it will be changed, since it is supported by most non-immigrant citizens from what I have learned, and I don't think any politicians would risk losing their future votes just so some new immigrants can get the citizenship one year sooner. I hope it happens, but I don't think it will. Restoring the Pre-PR time credit is much more realistic and achievable