ERJOPA said:
It looks like I (thankfully) I will not have a same day oath/test day. But I still need some insight into my query here.
Depenabill...I know you are just a forum person like the rest of us here, but do you have any thoughts on my question in this thread?
Mostly I agree with the comments by others here. (By the way, I was off doing Canadian north woods, blue lakes, kayaking and hiking and fishing stuff, for awhile, no digital connection for over a week . . . the good life.)
Even larger venues often limit the number of guests. (For mine, as I recall, the notice referred to a limited number of guests but the venue actually was very large compared to the number of us taking the oath, and it was clear some had a half dozen or more guests accompanying them, no one was checking as we entered the hall where the ceremony was taking place . . . but I live in a small city, many hundreds of kilometres from any substantial sized city, this was an itinerant services event, and the number taking the oath was barely over fifty.)
The oath ceremony is indeed a big day for many. And ceremonial big days do indeed go better with family to share the event. But CIC is not particularly accommodating in general, let alone in particular.
I do not know whether CIC will entertain a request for an alternative oath venue. In the past it would for those whose oath would ordinarily be provided as part of itinerant services, but this is mostly about allowing the individual to accept attending an oath ceremony in the primary local office venue rather than waiting for the next itinerant oath event for where that individual lives (some itinerant events can be up to a full year apart). It is worth noting that this does not involve a different local office, as it is still the same local office.
I do not know what the relationship is between Edmonton and Calgary, whether they are separate local offices or whether one is the primary local office and the other a location where itinerant services are provided.
If they are different local offices, my
impression (I do not know) is that there would be
no accommodation made in the circumstances you describe, but as others have indicated, making the request could easily cancel this scheduled oath and result in a long wait before it is rescheduled.
Mostly I suggest having a family event to celebrate, if that is what is desired, apart from the actual ceremony itself. This is what we did, in effect, although it was here and just later in the same day.
For many of us it is indeed an event to celebrate . . . and earlier this year, we celebrated the anniversary of it as well.