Notice – Changes to Citizenship processing on January 1, 2015

by | Jan 7, 2015 | News | 0 comments

News Source:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/notices/2014-12-31.asp

December 31, 2014 — On January 1st, 2015, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is changing the citizenship application fee to have applicant fees more closely reflect the costs associated with processing citizenship applications.

In order to reduce the burden on Canadian taxpayers, the fee for adult grant and resumption applications will increase from $300 to $530.

With this fee increase, applicants will now pay more than 90 percent of the cost to process a citizenship application, bringing the fee closer to its true cost.

Applications for a grant and resumptions of citizenship to a minor are exempt from this change. The $100 Right of Citizenship fee for successful applicants remains the same. Other fees for services, such as for citizenship proofs, are not changing.

The fee increase will only apply to individuals applying for an adult citizenship grant (including adult adoption) or resumption of citizenship. Fees for applications for a grant of citizenship to a minor child of a Canadian citizen will remain the same.

Through recent changes to the Citizenship Act, the government has made strides over the past year to improve of the citizenship application process, and is already seeing results. For example:

  • A new citizenship decision-making process, which came into force August 1, has streamlined the process from three steps to one. Since implementing the new process, more than 115,000 people have become Canadian citizens – a 90 percent increase from the same time period last year.
  • Canada’s citizenship application backlog has been reduced by 17 percent since June 2014, and the lowest level since spring 2012.
  • The government is on track to eliminate the citizenship application backlog to a working inventory and reduce processing times to less than one year by 2015-2016.

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