THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS TO REST :
RQ FAQ
What: The Residence Questionnaire is a five page document sometimes used in Canada’s citizenship process. It is issued when Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials are concerned that the applicant has not met the residency guidelines which make a permanent resident eligible to apply for citizenship. The RQ has been issued with increasing frequency since the May 2012 issuance of CIC Operational Bulletin 407. The RQ demands extensive documentation.
Who: The vast majority of RQ recipients are people of colour, often from the Mideast or South Asia. Stay-at-home mothers, the un- or underemployed, consultants and freelance workers are also targeted. Those who frequently travel, or who misreport absences on their original citizenship applications are also subject to the RQ.
Numbers: The CIC does not publicly report RQ statistics, but Nicholas Keung’s Toronto Star article on the RQ quotes the CIC as stating that approximately 11,000 RQs were issued between May 7 and Sept. 28, 2012. This means that during that period the CIC issued RQs at a rate of approx. 76/day, 2292/month or 27,882/year. This suggests that RQs are sent to around 12.5% of applicants. Additionally, documents received through Canada’s Access to Information Act show that the CIC’s Vancouver and Montréal offices had RQ rates of 30% and 50% respectively for at least part of 2012.
[size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt]Timeline: There are no official processing benchmarks for Residence Questionnaires. Some CIC Helpline agents estimate a timeline of 48 months for the citizenship applications of RQ recipients will move on to the next stage of the citizenship process. Others estimate that it will take 35-37 months from the time of initial application until citizenship is granted or refused. None of these responses are traceable to any publicly available documentation. There are no official timelines, no recourse and seemingly very little parliamentary oversight once someone gets an RQ.[/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size][/size]
Current Citizenship Inventory: 349,249 cases
