The public calls the government to waive the citizenship fee
New immigrants are still waiting on the Trudeau government to deliver on its promise to wipe out the fee to become a citizen as soon as possible. The Liberal Party had promised to waive the $630 fee during the fall 2019 election campaign. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship (IRCC) will lose almost $400 million over four years if the fee is eliminated. In the meantime, the backlogs and waiting time for new citizenship ceremonies are growing as the traditional in-person group oath-taking has been cancelled since March as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. IRCC has since moved the citizenship ceremonies online. Some citizenship applicants who have passed their exams and are in line to swear their citizenship oath have been told they can’t take their oath because their criminal record check expired while they were waiting for their turn.
#IRCC, #citizenship, #oath_ceremony, #processing_fees