Delays at citizenship office has applicants waiting years to become Canadians

As Canada’s immigration system responds to the pandemic and refugee emergencies, permanent residents in cue for citizenship are facing “unreasonable delays.” Faiza Amin speaks with applicants who say they’ve been without answers for years.

By Faiza Amin and Meredith Bond

From COVID-19 to multiple refugee crises worldwide, Canada’s immigration system has been operating under delays for over two years now. But what does this mean for those currently in the citizenship process?

Over 450,000 people are waiting to hear whether they can soon become Canadian citizens, but it is still up in the air when they find out.

CityNews spoke with two men who have been waiting years for their citizenship applications to be approved and are still not close to having a Canadian passport in hand.

Erfan Bhuyian first moved to Canada in 2005 from Bangladesh as an international student. After graduating, he obtained a work permit until he was eligible for permanent residency in 2011.

After he was approved, he left to attend law school in Australia. He applied for citizenship in December 2019 and shortly after, in February 2020, received confirmation from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) that they had received his application.

Bhuyian had to leave the country when his father passed away from COVID-19 in July of 2020 but came back to Canada in November and started working as a lawyer.

“I realized that I had an application pending, and I [hadn’t] heard anything. While I was away, I checked my email, I checked my voicemails, and there was no communication at all.”

He reached out to the IRCC and, just a day later, was contacted to do the biometrics portion of the application. By May 2021, over 17 months after he submitted his application, Bhuyian requested to have his application expedited under the category of “loss of opportunity.” However, his request was rejected.

At this point, IRCC tells CityNews that Bhuyian’s application is currently in the security clearance stage, but the “criminal clearance” associated with his application has expired and is being renewed.

IRCC said because the clearance is done through a partner agency, there is no timeline for when it will be completed. Once approved, Bhuyian will be scheduled an oath ceremony time, which can be another four-to-six months.

“Despite our best efforts, we know that some applicants have experienced considerable wait times with the processing of their applications. We thank them for their patience and understanding as we continue to work as hard as possible to reduce processing times,” the IRCC said in a statement to CityNews.

According to Bhuyian, his application was approved as of November 26, 2021, but due to the government’s delay in scheduling an oath, his clearance expired and delayed him once again.

He tells CityNews he re-submitted his security clearance Thursday after receiving an email about it a day earlier.

Bhuyian said he understands citizenship is a great privilege, but it hasn’t been an easy process for him or many others.

“It comes with a lot of hard work from [those] who had put in hours of hard work to qualify, and this is a recognition that makes the journey whole,” said Bhuyian. “I feel that I’ve been cheated of that opportunity by the IRCC through their lack of due process. I don’t feel valued for all the efforts I had put in and the commitments I have put forward to my country.”

He tells CityNews the wait has caused him a tremendous amount of anxiety and is holding him back from being able to live the life he has built in Canada freely. Bhuyian has heard of those who applied after him in May 2021 that have already taken their oath.

“Where is the equity in the process,” he questions. “I came to realize that this is a systemic issue. And when you deal with these kinds of issues by yourself, you tend to feel lonely. You tend to feel targeted; you tend to feel there’s something wrong with me. Maybe my application has some issues,” Bhuyian continued.

“So I started to reach out, and I found these social groups and people on the same boat as I am, and it started to open my mind, and I started to realize that it is not only me.”

“It makes you frustrated that your voices are not being heard. You’re not getting answers from your MP. You’re not getting answers from the minister in charge of immigration when you deserve the answer,” explained Bhuyian. “You deserve to be provided with a reasonable and rational explanation for the delay that has taken place. The onus is on the officers that we have elected, and I don’t feel respected.”

Bhuyian said he has been called to the bar as a lawyer in Ontario and prioritized his career before applying for citizenship because it was vital for him to build his future in Canada.

He said he understands why there have been delays caused by COVID-19 and refugee crises around the world, but the lack of communication has left him feeling rejected.

“My heart goes out to the current conditions in Ukraine. My heart goes out to Afghanistan and people who are suffering in Afghanistan. We are very much aware and conscious of the world conditions,” explained Bhuyian.

“Equally, I think Canadians who have worked hard to be where they are to the point where they apply for citizenship also deserve a fair and equitable opportunity to have their application processed in the reasonable timeframe that is enumerated by the Citizenship Act. I believe the minister should look into this and provide adequate resources so that we do not feel neglected.”

“I think that there are many people in this pool where I am right now. And I think there’s a community of people who need answers,” he said.

Lack of communication from IRCC contributing to Canadian citizenship delays

A Calgary man who has been in Canada for over a decade is one of those people. He applied for citizenship in January 2018 but has only had his fingerprints taken. He says he’s still in the dark about why his application is taking so long to be approved.

CityNews has agreed to keep him anonymous at his request.

IRCC says his application has been suspended pending an investigation, something he was unaware of. They could not provide further details or a timeline of how long the analysis will take.

He arrived in Canada from the U.S. in 2006, where he had been living since moving from Turkey, and received permanent residency in 2015. He has since set down roots, getting married and having children here.

But after waiting over four years, he doesn’t feel he is any closer to citizenship.

“I feel like I’m stuck. You don’t know where to go.”

Both men have made multiple attempts to reach someone at the IRCC, but it has become increasingly difficult. They have even turned to their local representatives for help, who have also not had any luck.

“All you can do is call or email them. I did both of them so many times. The only thing they are saying is in its process. There’s nothing we can do, wait,” the man said. “It’s really, really hard to get a hold of them because they’re always busy.”

Like Bhuyian, he has also heard of people who have recently applied to receive their citizenship before him.

“It seems like [the process] is getting faster. Of course, I’m happy for them, but you feel you are being betrayed, and it’s not fair. You’re stuck.”

He even tried reaching out to an immigration lawyer, but they said there was nothing further they could do once an application had been submitted.

“There’s nothing I can do, and I try not to think about it. I just don’t want this to be a fight,” he added.

The IRCC recently received an injection of $85 million for 2022-23 to reduce processing times in key areas affected by the pandemic. The agency is now inviting between 3,500 and 5,000 applicants for virtual oath ceremonies per week.

IRCC processed just over 60,000 applications between February 2020 and January 2021. The government agency has been able to ramp things up over the last year, processing 230,000, but some applicants are still waiting far beyond the average processing times for approval.

The average processing time pre-COVID-19 was 12 months before an oath ceremony to become a citizen, but the IRCC says they now can’t provide accurate processing times on their website.

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