13 August, 2014

Strengthening Citizenship, Speeding Up Processing

Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act continues to protect the integrity of Canada's immigration system

Canada's Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander 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.

Quick facts

Canada has the highest rate of naturalization in the world-85 per cent of eligible permanent residents become citizens.

Since 2006, Canada has welcomed over 1,300,000 proud new Canadians.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada received 333,860 citizenship applications in 2013, the highest volume ever and a strong reminder of the value of being a Canadian citizen.

news.gc.ca