Vancouver: My incredibly fast application

[quickyvr]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say that I have actually been impressed by CIC's processing of my application, and I must give them kudos where they deserve. I have heard so much negative stuff here, so wanted to share my incredible journey. I did not use any lawyer and actually had several day trips in and out of the country, as well as over 40 other trips for work as a management consultant. As long as you document everything, and follow the rules, CIC is not there to get you.

A recap of my timing:

+ We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on August 7, 2014.

+ We sent you a letter acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on August 7, 2014. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

+ We started processing your application on August 15, 2014.

+ We sent you a notice on October 7, 2014 to appear and write the citizenship test on November 6, 2014 at 10:05 AM. The notice you will receive by mail will be your official confirmation of your appointment. If you have not received this notice prior to the date of your scheduled appointment, please contact us.

+ We sent you a notice on November 12, 2014 to appear and take the oath of citizenship at the citizenship ceremony to be held on November 24, 2014 at 1:30 PM. The notice you will receive by mail will be your official confirmation of your appointment. If you have not received this notice prior to the date of your scheduled appointment, please contact us.

I am now a proud Canadian citizen. Good luck to everyone else with the process.

Best.

 

[BLT]

3 possibilities :
- Your application for urgent processing was being granted.
- You are a member of Canadian military or police force or fire fighters, etc.
- Your neighbour is Chris Alexander. (his second home is in Vancouver, maybe).

 

[OTTAWA2013]

3 possibilities :
- Your application for urgent processing was being granted.
- You are a member of Canadian military or police force or fire fighters, etc.
- Your neighbour is Chris Alexander. (his second home is in Vancouver, maybe)

First of all Congratulations and wish you the best with the rest of your life journey


Then I'd like to add on the 3 possibilities

- Your application for urgent processing was being granted.
- You are a member of Canadian military or police force or fire fighters, etc.
- Your neighbor is Chris Alexander. (his second home is in Vancouver, maybe)


-OR the CO assigned to your case was drinking a lot's of timhortons coffee lol

I gotta say that's one a hell of a quick process buddy 3.5 months ..... NICE

Good luck!

 

[eileenf]

Congratulations on your citizenship and the amazing timeline! It's pretty extraordinary. To give some context though, citizenship has sped up dramatically since the "bad old days" experienced by those who applied in 2010, 2011, 2012, etc. This has a lot to do with building support for the new citizenship bill (the first day that the first provisions went into force, CIC sent out a press release asserting, impossibly, the faster timelines as evidence that the cit bill was "already working!" even though it had only be in effect for about 20 minutes and wasn't in effect when the statistics and timelines were compiled.)

Faster timelines have far more to do with the special funding of $44 million for 2013-2014, that was held until 2014, (i.e. right before the new citizenship bill.)

As long as you document everything, and follow the rules, CIC is not there to get you.

Speaking from some hardwon experience here, this is the bare minimum of behaviors and not a guarantee of exceptionally fast processing times or respectful treatment by the CIC. The biggest variables for timelines are agency budgets and political will. Right now is a great and lucky time to apply because there is both.

For this government citizenship is political. CIC quite consciously created a massive delay in the run up to the new citizenship bill. And then they solved it. It's very good politics: Make a problem to solve a problem. But it's bad civics: one person's rights is another's political tool.

I'm glad things are getting faster now, but I'm still bitter at how my citizenship and my voting rights were withheld without explanation or justification for years on end. It's depressing to have one's rights toyed with (and then bestowed with a "oh yeah, I guess this whole RQ and delay was never even necessary") for the political gain of some dudebros trying to look tough.

 

[RussCan]

Congratulations on your citizenship and the amazing timeline! It's pretty extraordinary. To give some context though, citizenship has sped up dramatically since the "bad old days" experienced by those who applied in 2010, 2011, 2012, etc. This has a lot to do with building support for the new citizenship bill (the first day that the first provisions went into force, CIC sent out a press release asserting, impossibly, the faster timelines as evidence that the cit bill was "already working!" even though it had only be in effect for about 20 minutes and wasn't in effect when the statistics and timelines were compiled.)

Faster timelines have far more to do with the special funding of $44 million for 2013-2014, that was held until 2014, (i.e. right before the new citizenship bill.)
Speaking from some hardwon experience here, this is the bare minimum of behaviors and not a guarantee of exceptionally fast processing times or respectful treatment by the CIC. The biggest variables for timelines are agency budgets and political will. Right now is a great and lucky time to apply because there is both.

For this government citizenship is political. CIC quite consciously created a massive delay in the run up to the new citizenship bill. And then they solved it. It's very good politics: Make a problem to solve a problem. But it's bad civics: one person's rights is another's political tool.

I'm glad things are getting faster now, but I'm still bitter at how my citizenship and my voting rights were withheld without explanation or justification for years on end. It's depressing to have one's rights toyed with (and then bestowed with a "oh yeah, I guess this whole RQ and delay was never even necessary") for the political gain of some dudebros trying to look tough.

Things might be getting faster for any office may be but not for Calgary. It's been a year sharp today since they received my application. It was transferred to the Calgary office in late March and has been collecting dust there since. Whenever you call the call Centre they are like a freaking broken record, repeat like a mantre the same gibberish gobbledygook........

 

[Donvalley]

3 possibilities :
- Your application for urgent processing was being granted.
- You are a member of Canadian military or police force or fire fighters, etc.
- Your neighbour is Chris Alexander. (his second home is in Vancouver, maybe).

- Your neighbour is Chris Alexander. (his second home is in Vancouver, maybe).

BLT
Liked your insight!!

+1

 

[quickyvr]

Haha. None of those 3 categories apply to me. I have no idea if my CO was drinking a lot of TH though .

 

[SinghLovCan]

quickvr, congrats. You are really lucky. Would you share a few more details with us :

1)Did you have any travels in the qualifying period?
2)What was your original citizenship?
3)How long have you been in Canada as a PR, prior to applying?

I understand faster processing may apply to those if you didn't travel, been a PR for a long time.

 

[Donvalley]

....This has a lot to do with building support for the new citizenship bill (the first day that the first provisions went into force, CIC sent out a press release asserting, impossibly, the faster timelines as evidence that the cit bill was "already working!" even though it had only be in effect for about 20 minutes and wasn't in effect when the statistics and timelines were compiled.)

For this government citizenship is political. CIC quite consciously created a massive delay in the run up to the new citizenship bill. And then they solved it. It's very good politics: Make a problem to solve a problem. But it's bad civics: one person's rights is another's political tool.

I'm glad things are getting faster now, but I'm still bitter at how my citizenship and my voting rights were withheld without explanation or justification for years on end. It's depressing to have one's rights toyed with (and then bestowed with a "oh yeah, I guess this whole RQ and delay was never even necessary") for the political gain of some dudebros trying to look tough.

I totally agree with eileenf's points above that citizenship became a political tool now; sadly, though.
Glad to see things getting faster now.

Anyone who were here long enough, might have witnessed the citizenship process slowing down since 2007/2008, then to a crawling by 2010 and almost to a halt by 2012. The backlog pile up was the result of this catastrophe. Now I view this backlog creation as a purposeful groundwork done through years in preparation for the proposed citizenship bill. See the CIC sources itself speaking truth in following stats; numbers of new citizens from previous years:

2013 - 129,027
2012 - 113,111
2011 - 181,288
2010 - 143,595
2009 - 156,342
2008 - 176,567
2007 - 199,866

Source:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/data-release/2012-Q4/index.asp
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/statistics/data-release/2014-Q1/index.asp
Note: slight variation in final numbers are found in cic published data each year

Just a side note: I personally know of another whole family application completed less than OP's timeline.

 

[SinghLovCan]

What will the processing time look like after the elections? Does this mean applying in May 2015, might get it even faster?

 

[arambi]

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say that I have actually been impressed by CIC's processing of my application, and I must give them kudos where they deserve. I have heard so much negative stuff here, so wanted to share my incredible journey. I did not use any lawyer and actually had several day trips in and out of the country, as well as over 40 other trips for work as a management consultant. As long as you document everything, and follow the rules, CIC is not there to get you.

A recap of my timing:

+ We received your application for Canadian citizenship (grant of citizenship) on August 7, 2014.

+ We sent you a letter acknowledging receipt of your application(s), and a study book called Discover Canada on August 7, 2014. Please consider delays in mail delivery before contacting us.

+ We started processing your application on August 15, 2014.

+ We sent you a notice on October 7, 2014 to appear and write the citizenship test on November 6, 2014 at 10:05 AM. The notice you will receive by mail will be your official confirmation of your appointment. If you have not received this notice prior to the date of your scheduled appointment, please contact us.

+ We sent you a notice on November 12, 2014 to appear and take the oath of citizenship at the citizenship ceremony to be held on November 24, 2014 at 1:30 PM. The notice you will receive by mail will be your official confirmation of your appointment. If you have not received this notice prior to the date of your scheduled appointment, please contact us.

I am now a proud Canadian citizen. Good luck to everyone else with the process.

Best.

Few usefulquestions
How many physical presence days did you have when you applied?
Did you send documents other than document required by CIC? Or what document did you send to support your application? (CBSA travel report or USA travel report)?

 

[u4g5]

REGARDLESS , YOU HAVE BECOME THE FASTEST VANCOUVER APPLICATION, 3.5 FROM BEGIN TO END.
CONGRAZ!

 

[Kitsilano]

starting process takes 2 months.
due to background checks etc.
how come it takes 1 week?

 

[ingegarcia]

Congratulations if this post is true... but I highly doubt this is a real case. Usually it takes 1-2 months to get the acknowledge letter from CIC and more than 3 months to move to local office.

 

[sgimmy]

that is true..my friend got it in 4 months after applying