Canada Reforms To Citizenship Act Help People To Become Canadians Sooner

17 Oct 2014

The Citizenship and Immigration Minister of Canada, Chris Alexander, announced that over 200,000 people have integrated with the Canadian family so far in this year. And, the backlog rate of citizenship application has been lowered by 13% since June. He added that these attainments reflect the government’s recent reforms to citizenship processing are working.

Notably, around 50,000 people have become citizens of Canada since a fast-tracked decision making process came into existence on 1 August 2014. The country has witnessed 172% rise on the same when compared to same period over last year, Alexander said.

Also, the recent amendments have permitted decision-making authorities to advance the backlog of non-routine cases, counting the residency questions as well. Majority of the cases in which a residency questionnaire (RQ) was granted before November 2013 have been determined after the applicants received their citizenship. The RQ’s had been issued to more than thousand people and they are about to write their tests. The files will then be assessed by a number of decision makers given the applicants need to prove that they meet the requirements.

The Tzu Chi Foundation organized the ceremony, which was attended by the minister, where over 100 people took the Oath of Citizenship. This is one amongst the 85 ceremonies held throughout the country during Citizenship Week 2014. 

Alexander added that the government’s recent amendments to the Citizenship Act help new citizens to mix with the Canadian family sooner. He added that the government efforts had brought down the backlog rates, improved processing times and encouraged new people to integrate well with the Canadian society.    

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