August 1, 2014 — Ottawa — Canada’s Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander today announced that recent changes to the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act are already paying big dividends: citizenship backlogs are at their lowest level in more than two years, and applications are now being processed more efficiently than ever.
The government’s overhaul of the Citizenship Act saw the citizenship decision-making process move from three steps to one. This change and others in the Act are designed to improve program integrity and safeguard the value of Canadian citizenship.
The number of decision makers has also increased which will ensure that citizenship applications are processed more quickly and backlogs are reduced.
It is expected that in 2015/16 the processing time for citizenship applications will be less than a year. It is also projected that the current backlog of applications will be reduced by more than 80 percent.
In addition to the new streamlined decision making model, the government has today implemented a range of legislative amendments to further strengthen Canada’s citizenship program. These amendments relate to authorities to refuse incomplete applications and a uniform system for judicial review of citizenship decisions are also now in effect.
These changes were part of Bill C-24, the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act, which received Royal Assent on June 19, 2014. These improvements are in addition to funding in Economic Action Plan 2013 of an additional $44 million over two years to the citizenship program to ensure the timely processing of applications.
Kevin Menard
Minister’s Office
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-954-1064
Media Relations
Communications Branch
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca
Building a stronger Canada: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) strengthens Canada’s economic, social and cultural prosperity, helping ensure Canadian safety and security while managing one of the largest and most generous immigration programs in the world.
