Seeking Help | Overdue Canadian Citizenship | 10+ Years in Canada

[ricsingh1]

I am looking for some help with my citizenship case.

I have submitted my application on May 16, 2018, and wrote a citizenship test on June 8, 2019. I passed the test. I am still waiting to hear about a final decision. My application is taking way too long - much longer than the processing time indicated on cic.gc.ca. It's over two years (26 months) since I have sent my application. I fully understand the IRCC limitations that they can't promise everyone a 12 month processing time as every case is different. However, in my case, it's more than double the time.

When I went for an interview and the citizenship test on June 8, 2019, the officer informed me that I missed declaring some absences on my application. These were about 25 days. He asked me to fill in the form and send it back, which I did the next day. And I haven’t heard back anything since then. Please note that even if I subtracted these 25 days from my eligibility period, I was still meeting the residency requirements of 1095 days.

I reached out to IRCC many times via calls and web forms, and every time I have been told that they are still processing the application, and they have everything they need. I requested ATIP in Oct 2019, and as per the ATIP, there was no movement on my application since July 2019. It seems like IRCC have forgotten about my application, and it’s buried under a pile of other applications.

I also reached out to my MP for help and IRCC told her that they are processing it. They also told her that my file is non-routine.

I would like to know what are options to move this process faster. This is my 11th year in the country and it’s unfortunate that I am still not a citizen.

 

[scylla]

I am looking for some help with my citizenship case.

I have submitted my application on May 16, 2018, and wrote a citizenship test on June 8, 2019. I passed the test. I am still waiting to hear about a final decision. My application is taking way too long - much longer than the processing time indicated on cic.gc.ca. It's over two years (26 months) since I have sent my application. I fully understand the IRCC limitations that they can't promise everyone a 12 month processing time as every case is different. However, in my case, it's more than double the time.

When I went for an interview and the citizenship test on June 8, 2019, the officer informed me that I missed declaring some absences on my application. These were about 25 days. He asked me to fill in the form and send it back, which I did the next day. And I haven’t heard back anything since then. Please note that even if I subtracted these 25 days from my eligibility period, I was still meeting the residency requirements of 1095 days.

I reached out to IRCC many times via calls and web forms, and every time I have been told that they are still processing the application, and they have everything they need. I requested ATIP in Oct 2019, and as per the ATIP, there was no movement on my application since July 2019. It seems like IRCC have forgotten about my application, and it’s buried under a pile of other applications.

I also reached out to my MP for help and IRCC told her that they are processing it. They also told her that my file is non-routine.

I would like to know what are options to move this process faster. This is my 11th year in the country and it’s unfortunate that I am still not a citizen.

Mandamus is an option you can look into. However normally mandamus is successful once you are 3+ years. It might be too early in your case. Mandamus will cost you money since you need a lawyer.

 

[EUK]

I am looking for some help with my citizenship case.

I have submitted my application on May 16, 2018, and wrote a citizenship test on June 8, 2019. I passed the test. I am still waiting to hear about a final decision. My application is taking way too long - much longer than the processing time indicated on cic.gc.ca. It's over two years (26 months) since I have sent my application. I fully understand the IRCC limitations that they can't promise everyone a 12 month processing time as every case is different. However, in my case, it's more than double the time.

When I went for an interview and the citizenship test on June 8, 2019, the officer informed me that I missed declaring some absences on my application. These were about 25 days. He asked me to fill in the form and send it back, which I did the next day. And I haven’t heard back anything since then. Please note that even if I subtracted these 25 days from my eligibility period, I was still meeting the residency requirements of 1095 days.

I reached out to IRCC many times via calls and web forms, and every time I have been told that they are still processing the application, and they have everything they need. I requested ATIP in Oct 2019, and as per the ATIP, there was no movement on my application since July 2019. It seems like IRCC have forgotten about my application, and it’s buried under a pile of other applications.

I also reached out to my MP for help and IRCC told her that they are processing it. They also told her that my file is non-routine.

I would like to know what are options to move this process faster. This is my 11th year in the country and it’s unfortunate that I am still not a citizen.

Have you ordered GCMS notes?

 

[dpenabill]

I have submitted my application on May 16, 2018, and wrote a citizenship test on June 8, 2019

When I went for an interview and the citizenship test on June 8, 2019, the officer informed me that I missed declaring some absences on my application. These were about 25 days. He asked me to fill in the form and send it back, which I did the next day. And I haven’t heard back anything since then. Please note that even if I subtracted these 25 days from my eligibility period, I was still meeting the residency requirements of 1095 days.

I reached out to IRCC many times via calls and web forms, and every time I have been told that they are still processing the application, and they have everything they need. I requested ATIP in Oct 2019, and as per the ATIP, there was no movement on my application since July 2019. It seems like IRCC have forgotten about my application, and it’s buried under a pile of other applications.

I also reached out to my MP for help and IRCC told her that they are processing it. They also told her that my file is non-routine.

I would like to know what are options to move this process faster. This is my 11th year in the country and it’s unfortunate that I am still not a citizen.

Yes, your file is "non-routine." But that in itself does not mean much at all. It just means your application has encountered some procedure or request that is in addition to that all applications go through. The request for additional information or a corrected travel history alone makes your application "non-routine." For some applicants this does not delay the process much at all. For others, however, non-routine processing can lead to rather lengthy delays.

There are many, many, many individual factors which can influence how things go.

But for now the impact of Covid-19 is obviously at least a big obstruction to further progress in your case. There is little prospect of being scheduled for any event, be that for an oath ceremony, or an interview with a Citizenship Officer, or a hearing with a Citizenship Judge, for the time being. There is virtually no prospect of successfully obtaining mandamus relief for the time being.

Unfortunately you will need to continue waiting, and probably wait for quite a bit more, before you will see progress. It is possible that as IRCC resumes more processing of citizenship applications you might get good news and see a positive Decision Made sooner rather than later, but the odds of that happening soon are not good.


Beyond that, it is difficult to discern the nature or scope of potential issues there may be regarding your application. You do not indicate why, for example, you did not apply for citizenship until you had been "in" Canada (as you describe it) for nearly NINE years or so. May or may not have much significance, but some reasons for waiting that long are indeed likely to have influence in how things go.

Which leads to the actual physical presence calculation in particular. You only minimally mention relevant factors, and for example you do not describe the form of the request for a corrected travel history and actual physical presence calculation. Noting, for example, whether after deducting additional days you failed to disclose in the initial application, that results in barely meeting the presence requirement or you still have a substantial margin over the minimum. Additionally, the nature and reason for the omission potentially looms as a very significant factor.

An omission of 25 days is rather substantial. Substantial enough it could make a big difference whether the responsible Citizenship Officer perceives it to have been an innocent mistake or otherwise. Remember, misrepresentation, including misrepresentation by omission, is a stand-alone ground for denying an application, even if the applicant otherwise meets all the requirements. Not that IRCC ordinarily treats such omissions so strictly. They probably don't. But that depends on the facts in the particular case. And it can depend in significant part on how much of a margin over the minimum presence requirement you still have after deducting those days. Note, for example, since it appears you were a PR the entire five year eligibility period, and had been "in" Canada for several years before that, if your net margin over the minimum was relatively low, that means you were spending quite a lot of time abroad, suggesting strong ongoing ties abroad.

The above is NOT an attempt to analyze your actual situation but rather to simply illustrate that it is NOT so simple as deducting the additional days, that many other factors can influence what the processing agent and Citizenship Officer perceive and apprehend.

There are way too many possible factors to try enumerating them here. Are you a refugee, for example, and if so have you obtained a home country passport or traveled using a home country passport? Is the length of time in Canada before applying for citizenship due to some prohibition? To what extent do you have strong ongoing ties abroad. What was the reason for failing to truthfully disclose all days abroad? Among many others.

I am NOT suggesting, either, that you address these here. Only that such matters can have a big impact on how things are likely to go.

Which brings this back around to the prospect of pursuing an application for the Writ of Mandamus. Practically, even if not technically, a competent, experienced lawyer is needed to do this. As I already noted, now is NOT the time to consider doing this. BUT sooner or later, unless you get notice that IRCC has made a favourable decision in your case, you may very well want to at least CONSULT with a lawyer. And if and when you do that, you will want to take ALL the relevant information, including much of your overall immigration history as well as copies of your citizenship application and BOTH actual physical presence calculations (original submitted with application, and the revised version submitted following the interview), and be as open as possible with the lawyer, so that the lawyer can fairly and intelligently evaluate all the relevant factors and offer you a comprehensive explanation of where things are at and where things might go from there.

 

[issteven]

are you sure that those 25 days are the only cause of your case to be non-routing? is there any other possibilities?

 

[scylla]

Yes, your file is "non-routine." But that in itself does not mean much at all. It just means your application has encountered some procedure or request that is in addition to that all applications go through. The request for additional information or a corrected travel history alone makes your application "non-routine." For some applicants this does not delay the process much at all. For others, however, non-routine processing can lead to rather lengthy delays.

There are many, many, many individual factors which can influence how things go.

But for now the impact of Covid-19 is obviously at least a big obstruction to further progress in your case. There is little prospect of being scheduled for any event, be that for an oath ceremony, or an interview with a Citizenship Officer, or a hearing with a Citizenship Judge, for the time being. There is virtually no prospect of successfully obtaining mandamus relief for the time being.

Unfortunately you will need to continue waiting, and probably wait for quite a bit more, before you will see progress. It is possible that as IRCC resumes more processing of citizenship applications you might get good news and see a positive Decision Made sooner rather than later, but the odds of that happening soon are not good.


Beyond that, it is difficult to discern the nature or scope of potential issues there may be regarding your application. You do not indicate why, for example, you did not apply for citizenship until you had been "in" Canada (as you describe it) for nearly NINE years or so. May or may not have much significance, but some reasons for waiting that long are indeed likely to have influence in how things go.

Which leads to the actual physical presence calculation in particular. You only minimally mention relevant factors, and for example you do not describe the form of the request for a corrected travel history and actual physical presence calculation. Noting, for example, whether after deducting additional days you failed to disclose in the initial application, that results in barely meeting the presence requirement or you still have a substantial margin over the minimum. Additionally, the nature and reason for the omission potentially looms as a very significant factor.

An omission of 25 days is rather substantial. Substantial enough it could make a big difference whether the responsible Citizenship Officer perceives it to have been an innocent mistake or otherwise. Remember, misrepresentation, including misrepresentation by omission, is a stand-alone ground for denying an application, even if the applicant otherwise meets all the requirements. Not that IRCC ordinarily treats such omissions so strictly. They probably don't. But that depends on the facts in the particular case. And it can depend in significant part on how much of a margin over the minimum presence requirement you still have after deducting those days. Note, for example, since it appears you were a PR the entire five year eligibility period, and had been "in" Canada for several years before that, if your net margin over the minimum was relatively low, that means you were spending quite a lot of time abroad, suggesting strong ongoing ties abroad.

The above is NOT an attempt to analyze your actual situation but rather to simply illustrate that it is NOT so simple as deducting the additional days, that many other factors can influence what the processing agent and Citizenship Officer perceive and apprehend.

There are way too many possible factors to try enumerating them here. Are you a refugee, for example, and if so have you obtained a home country passport or traveled using a home country passport? Is the length of time in Canada before applying for citizenship due to some prohibition? To what extent do you have strong ongoing ties abroad. What was the reason for failing to truthfully disclose all days abroad? Among many others.

I am NOT suggesting, either, that you address these here. Only that such matters can have a big impact on how things are likely to go.

Which brings this back around to the prospect of pursuing an application for the Writ of Mandamus. Practically, even if not technically, a competent, experienced lawyer is needed to do this. As I already noted, now is NOT the time to consider doing this. BUT sooner or later, unless you get notice that IRCC has made a favourable decision in your case, you may very well want to at least CONSULT with a lawyer. And if and when you do that, you will want to take ALL the relevant information, including much of your overall immigration history as well as copies of your citizenship application and BOTH actual physical presence calculations (original submitted with application, and the revised version submitted following the interview), and be as open as possible with the lawyer, so that the lawyer can fairly and intelligently evaluate all the relevant factors and offer you a comprehensive explanation of where things are at and where things might go from there.

Lots of good points here.

I would agree that the 25 day miss is pretty substantial and has likely triggered a larger review.

My husband missed 1 same day trip to the U.S. in his citizenship application and that delayed us for months.

 

[ricsingh1]

Have you ordered GCMS notes?

Yes, I have ordered ATIP. As mentioned, I orderd it inn oct/nov 2019. Is GCMS different from ATIP?

 

[ricsingh1]

Lots of good points here.

I would agree that the 25 day miss is pretty substantial and has likely triggered a larger review.

My husband missed 1 same day trip to the U.S. in his citizenship application and that delayed us for months.

Damn. I guess I am screwed then.

 

[scylla]

Damn. I guess I am screwed then.

Your application will eventually be approved - it will just take time.

Normal processing times are dependent on having a complete and accurate application. Once you have an error in residency days, this throws you off the normal / standard processing path - sometimes substantially since the whole premise of qualifying for citizenship is having enough residency days. You've claimed amost a month that you didn't actually have. That's definitely on the higher end and has likely triggered a much deeper review of all of the residency days you have claimed to make sure there aren't further misrepresentations. The good news is that you still have enough days even with this 25 days substracted (according to your post). So it will get there eventually. Unfortunately these are the consequences of the error you have made and why it's super important to make sure the days are right before signing and submitting the application. Like I said, we missed one same day trip. So feel your pain. I would order GCMS notes again now to make sure there wasn't a communication you missed. Normally IRCC would request that you submit evidence to prove the rest of your residency days as a next step. This is a crap load of work and something you could get started on prepping now making the assumption they will ask for this.

Good luck. Hope you hear something soon.

 

[ricsingh1]

Yes, your file is "non-routine." But that in itself does not mean much at all. It just means your application has encountered some procedure or request that is in addition to that all applications go through. The request for additional information or a corrected travel history alone makes your application "non-routine." For some applicants this does not delay the process much at all. For others, however, non-routine processing can lead to rather lengthy delays.

There are many, many, many individual factors which can influence how things go.

But for now the impact of Covid-19 is obviously at least a big obstruction to further progress in your case. There is little prospect of being scheduled for any event, be that for an oath ceremony, or an interview with a Citizenship Officer, or a hearing with a Citizenship Judge, for the time being. There is virtually no prospect of successfully obtaining mandamus relief for the time being.

Unfortunately you will need to continue waiting, and probably wait for quite a bit more, before you will see progress. It is possible that as IRCC resumes more processing of citizenship applications you might get good news and see a positive Decision Made sooner rather than later, but the odds of that happening soon are not good.


Beyond that, it is difficult to discern the nature or scope of potential issues there may be regarding your application. You do not indicate why, for example, you did not apply for citizenship until you had been "in" Canada (as you describe it) for nearly NINE years or so. May or may not have much significance, but some reasons for waiting that long are indeed likely to have influence in how things go.

Which leads to the actual physical presence calculation in particular. You only minimally mention relevant factors, and for example you do not describe the form of the request for a corrected travel history and actual physical presence calculation. Noting, for example, whether after deducting additional days you failed to disclose in the initial application, that results in barely meeting the presence requirement or you still have a substantial margin over the minimum. Additionally, the nature and reason for the omission potentially looms as a very significant factor.

An omission of 25 days is rather substantial. Substantial enough it could make a big difference whether the responsible Citizenship Officer perceives it to have been an innocent mistake or otherwise. Remember, misrepresentation, including misrepresentation by omission, is a stand-alone ground for denying an application, even if the applicant otherwise meets all the requirements. Not that IRCC ordinarily treats such omissions so strictly. They probably don't. But that depends on the facts in the particular case. And it can depend in significant part on how much of a margin over the minimum presence requirement you still have after deducting those days. Note, for example, since it appears you were a PR the entire five year eligibility period, and had been "in" Canada for several years before that, if your net margin over the minimum was relatively low, that means you were spending quite a lot of time abroad, suggesting strong ongoing ties abroad.

The above is NOT an attempt to analyze your actual situation but rather to simply illustrate that it is NOT so simple as deducting the additional days, that many other factors can influence what the processing agent and Citizenship Officer perceive and apprehend.

There are way too many possible factors to try enumerating them here. Are you a refugee, for example, and if so have you obtained a home country passport or traveled using a home country passport? Is the length of time in Canada before applying for citizenship due to some prohibition? To what extent do you have strong ongoing ties abroad. What was the reason for failing to truthfully disclose all days abroad? Among many others.

I am NOT suggesting, either, that you address these here. Only that such matters can have a big impact on how things are likely to go.

Which brings this back around to the prospect of pursuing an application for the Writ of Mandamus. Practically, even if not technically, a competent, experienced lawyer is needed to do this. As I already noted, now is NOT the time to consider doing this. BUT sooner or later, unless you get notice that IRCC has made a favourable decision in your case, you may very well want to at least CONSULT with a lawyer. And if and when you do that, you will want to take ALL the relevant information, including much of your overall immigration history as well as copies of your citizenship application and BOTH actual physical presence calculations (original submitted with application, and the revised version submitted following the interview), and be as open as possible with the lawyer, so that the lawyer can fairly and intelligently evaluate all the relevant factors and offer you a comprehensive explanation of where things are at and where things might go from there.

thank you for taking the time to leave a detialed reply.

 

[ricsingh1]

Do you guys know how many tiers of referral IRCC have? I have received the GCMS notes today and it says that "Tier 3 referral reviewed". So, I am wondering if this is the last level of review on my file.