What happens if one applies for Citizenship then has to leave for extended period

[zita55]

We applied for citizenship in April 2013 and had the interview in March 2014. We are over 55 and do not need to do the test. My 93 year old mother in the UK is now ill and we may have to look after her for an extended period. We are classed as a non routine application (though no idea why) and it says it could take up to 36 months to process. Our children who have also settled in Canada have applied for citizenship and we have no intention of making the UK our permanent home, but have no idea when we will be able to return as my 93 year old mother needs looking after and hate the though of her going into a home when her mind is still active.
Firstly, Can anyone advise on why our application was classed as non routine. We applied after 3 half years in Canada, own a home and run a business here, plus our children are also in Canada. Secondly can anyone advise what happens after our interview and why it should take so long to process.
Will be very grateful for information
Thank you

 

[Cic undercover agent]

Hie there.Congratulations for applying for Canadian citizenship.A couple of questions for you,which is your local CIC office? And you say "we" have you applied for canadian citizenship as a family together with your children or have you sent seperate applications? Your application was classified as non-routine because of a couple of possible reasons: you either travelled oversees so frequently during your PR time or pre-PR time;you had more than one passport and you didnt account for it during your application and didnt submit its biographical pages,you either missed one or a few travels on your application absence declaration and when you calculated your days in Canada leading up to your citizenship application using the residency calculaor,your math came out wrong even if you were well past 1095 days.That absence declaration and residency calculator is the central point of the canadian citizenship application.Anything you miss will lead to years and years upon years of waiting. Are you sure your criminal records are clean? Have you been asked to respond with candian residency proof?? Have you contacted CIC to ask why? And your inerview,if you are able to and dont mind sharing,what questions were asked?? And did they indicate any undertaking action?? I would additionally consider contacting a reputable immigration lawyer who can also assist better .But however,the Canadian gvt is not really serious with its poor approach to CIC.CIC is operationally unable to process any applications from any immigration category because of budget cuts,staff reductions and neglected procedures that are unable to assist in processing applications.So application time frames are increasing and increasing by months on end.Court actions and frankly lucky applicants are the only beneficiaries here.Now im sorry about your mother,i hope she will be ok and though its commendable you have established yourselves here, Cic s operational capabilities are disfunctional and not able to process applications no matter how good an applicant is.You have to be lucky to fall in a jurisdiction where you have serious CIC agents working to get to a decision in a time frame that makes sense .Leaving Canada forban extended period of time could however place your applications in jeopardy,non routine are taking 3 yrs to process,very pathetic indeed,but 3yrs .Leaving for an extended period of time will question the intent to reside clause which is now in effect.So your application could be denied because your extended stay out of canada will be sufficient reason to justify you dont intend to reside in canada during both the application period and after the citizenship is granted if it gets to that decision.This is a very disfunctional department,however those are the rules.Any other questions please dont hesitate to ask,i will try my best to answer you.

 

[CPU2014]

my case is referred to program support unit .i live here since last 4.5 years with my 3 school going children.can you tell me what is PSU.

 

[DAN11]

yellow_jacket,

You can go to England as you have done all that needs to be done. Its just that should they require additional information which require your presence in Canada you would have to come back. Have you contact the call Center to find out whats the latest on your file? (Although alot of them dont have a clue as to whats happening.. I dont know why they dont trained then the right way.

 

[Cic undercover agent]

my case is referred to program support unit .i live here since last 4.5 years with my 3 school going children.can you tell me what is PSU.

PSU is another unit inside CIC that further investigate applications that are of particular concern.They are further investigating your criminal or residency or PR status .So this does cause further delays and the best thing to do is to wait and have all such documentation ready.When your application is sent to this unit,you just have to wait it out and be very patient.Are there previous or current legal court actions against you?

 

[Iebo]

Can you explain why some applicants received AOR by emails and others received AOR by mail?

And for those who's received AOR by emails when they can see their status online?

Thanks,

 

[aed]

Your major concern should be maintaining the PR status. If you stay outside of Canada too long, you may lose it and along with it one of the main requirements for the citizenship. Even though you already applied and had the test, your PR status must not be in question till the day of your oath.

 

[Cic undercover agent]

Can you explain why some applicants received AOR by emails and others received AOR by mail?

And for those who's received AOR by emails when they can see their status online?

Thanks,

Hie there... Sorry for the late reply. CIC IT system self updates each time an action on a file has bern undertaken.It will self update when the GCMS database has been updated particularly test notifications,residency proof or oath schedules.Now occassionally,the self-update delays or needs to be rebooted .Network slowdowns or larger than normal volume of applicants that need an Ecass update,so such a volume coud slow the update and some applicants will receive an Ecas update and some wont.The most importan factor here is the GCMS is updated and is the central CIC file database that is used to send direct communications to you through the mail.

 

[Michels]

...Now occassionally,the self-update delays or needs to be rebooted ...

It is called replication to the web Db and not self update rebooted? you think they run this on a pc or a small application that hangs from time to time? hehe.. these are enterprise level databases with scheduled / triggered replications to various nodes there should be no delays simply the human factor and parallel processes do not always work seamlessly..

 

[osamaamany]

Your major concern should be maintaining the PR status. If you stay outside of Canada too long, you may lose it and along with it one of the main requirements for the citizenship. Even though you already applied and had the test, your PR status must not be in question till the day of your oath.

If some one applied for citizenship how his PR will be questioned ?! Maintaining the PR status require 2 years physical residency out of 5 years and citizenship requires 3 years out of 5 in the current law ..that means if some one applied for citizenship he will be already covered the 2 years required by default for renewing the PR in case he needs to do so.

Am i right?

 

[zardoz]

If some one applied for citizenship how his PR will be questioned ?! Maintaining the PR status require 2 years physical residency out of 5 years and citizenship requires 3 years out of 5 in the current law ..that means if some one applied for citizenship he will be already covered the 2 years required by default for renewing the PR in case he needs to do so.

Am i right?

No. If you, after submitting your citizenship application, fail to comply with the residency obligation requirements while the application is being processed, the application will be rejected. It is possible to spend more than 1095 days outside Canada if your application is slow, before it's approved. It's currently 3 years out of 4, not 5.

 

[aed]

If some one applied for citizenship how his PR will be questioned ?! Maintaining the PR status require 2 years physical residency out of 5 years and citizenship requires 3 years out of 5 in the current law ..that means if some one applied for citizenship he will be already covered the 2 years required by default for renewing the PR in case he needs to do so.

Am i right?

No. Ditto to what zardoz said.

Subsection 28(2) of the IRPA provides the following rules to determine whether a permanent resident has complied with this obligation:

"(...)It is sufficient for a permanent resident to demonstrate at examination
(i) If they have been a permanent resident for less than five years, that they will be able to meet the residency obligation in respect of the five-year period immediately after they became a permanent resident;
(ii) If they have been a permanent resident for five years or more, that they have met the residency obligation in respect of the five-year period immediately before the examination (...)"

 

[pedros]

Leaving for an extended period of time will question the intent to reside clause which is now in effect.So your application could be denied because your extended stay out of canada will be sufficient reason to justify you dont intend to reside in canada during both the application period and after the citizenship is granted if it gets to that decision.

The intent to reside clause is not in effect. See the current version of the Citizenship Act and "Amendments Not In Force". The intent to reside amendment is listed there.

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-29/nifnev.html

 

[006007]

The intent to reside clause is not in effect. See the current version of the Citizenship Act and "Amendments Not In Force". The intent to reside amendment is listed there.

http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-29/nifnev.html

So the key question is "will this clause retrospectively apply and affect the existing applicants once it is in force? It is very likely that the case will not be finalised before this clause takes effect some day in future"

 

[dpenabill]

So the key question is "will this clause retrospectively apply and affect the existing applicants once it is in force? It is very likely that the case will not be finalised before this clause takes effect some day in future"

The transition provisions in Bill C-24 specify how the respective provisions affect processing. Changes to section 5(1) will explicitly only apply to applications made on or after the date those provisions come into force.

Anyone who has an application already in process on the day before the "intent to reside" clause comes into force will not be governed by the "intent to reside" clause.