Program delivery update – August 1, 2014

Coming into force of new elements of the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act

Summary

On June 19, 2014, Bill C-24 received royal assent and the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act became law.

The new law is resulting in a number of changes in which the Citizenship Program will operate to achieve the objectives of the legislative reform which include:

• increasing the efficiency of the Citizenship Program;
• reinforcing the value of Canadian citizenship;
• strengthening program integrity and combating fraud; and
• protecting and promoting Canada’s interests and values.

Various elements of the new Citizenship Act will come into force at different times over the next two years. Today, new elements that have come into force are:

• the public servant decision making model where delegated citizenship officers will now be the decision makers on the majority of citizenship grant, resumption and renunciation applications;
• improvements to the efficiency of the Citizenship Program through strengthening authorities to define a complete application that can be accepted into processing and to determine when an application can be suspended or deemed abandoned; and
• the implementation of the judicial review process applicable to all decisions made on citizenship applications.

Elements of the new Act related to the new residence requirements, the expansion of the age group needing to meet the knowledge and language requirements, and the requirement to meet knowledge in an official language are expected to come into force in 2015.

Updated instructions

• Overview
• Grants
• Acquisition and loss
• Administration

More program delivery instructions will be updated as other elements come into force.