Citizenship Rates Expected to Rise in 2021

Researcher Predicts That On-line Citizenship Exams May Improve Demand For In-Individual Testing

Canada is ready to expertise an enormous surge in everlasting residents acquiring citizenship, both later this yr or early subsequent yr. That is in accordance with statements made to Immigration.ca by Robert Falconer, a analysis affiliate on the College of Calgary.

This surge shouldn’t come as a shock, as citizenship charges dropped dramatically in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The truth is, throughout the first 11 months of 2020, solely 107,119 individuals took the citizenship oath in Canada. This can be a lower of 45.9 per cent, in comparison with the 233,397 individuals who turned Canadian residents throughout the identical interval in 2019.

The rationale for the decline in 2020 is that citizenship ceremonies throughout the nation had been cancelled in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April, solely 14 individuals took the citizenship oath, and by Could, this quantity elevated to 61. As lockdown restrictions had been lifted, the quantity started to extend once more with 1,716 individuals taking the oath in June, and 13,819 in September.

In November, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) launched a web-based platform permitting new Canadian residents to take citizenship checks. This made Canada the primary nation on the planet to supply citizenship testing on-line. Nevertheless, the platform remains to be present process testing, and solely a restricted variety of individuals have been invited to make use of the platform at this level.

Falconer informed Immigration.ca that shifting immigration testing on-line will seemingly result in a lower within the variety of individuals taking their citizenship checks. He believes it is because changing into a Canadian citizen is a momentous event that many wish to rejoice with family and friends. Nevertheless, because of the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, a majority of these in-person celebrations should not happening.

By the summer time of 2021, although, Falconer predicts that there can be a rise in demand for in-person citizenship ceremonies.

“There’ll be an explosion in citizenship ceremonies for a few causes,” stated Falconer. “Persons are ready till they’ll do it in individual and, on the federal government facet, it’s taking longer to course of the functions.”

Between the rise in demand and the common quantity of a standard yr, Falconer estimates that 30,000 individuals might grow to be residents every month in 2022.

Nevertheless, Falconer added that it could be tough for the IRCC to deal with this inflow in citizenship functions.

“The IRCC is without doubt one of the most under-staffed authorities establishments in Canada,” he stated.

Arghavan Gerami

Arghavan Gerami is the Founder and Senior Counsel at Gerami Legislation Skilled Company (‘PC’), a full-service immigration legislation agency in Ottawa, Ontario. Since 2011, Ms. Gerami has centered her observe on immigration and refugee litigation. Previous to that, Ms. Gerami labored on the Ministry of Legal professional Normal and the Division of Justice and had the privilege of serving the Honourable Mr. Justice M. Evans on the Federal Court docket of Attraction on immigration and administrative legislation appeals. Ms. Gerami contributes to the Immigration Legislation Part of the Canadian Bar Affiliation, the Canadian Affiliation of Refugee Attorneys, and the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees. Ms. Gerami has additionally printed quite a few journal articles and offered at numerous immigration and refugee legislation conferences and occasions throughout Canada.