Citizenship processing fees will increase from $300 to $530 for applicants whose complete applications are received after Jan. 1, 2015.
By R. Paul Dhillon
TORONTO – The Conservative government is nearly doubling the Citizenship fees after a record number of immigrants to Canada became Canadian citizens in 2014.
Citizenship processing fees will increase from $300 to $530 for applicants whose complete applications are received after Jan. 1, 2015.
A press release from the Citizenship and Immigration justified the huge increase by saying the applicant fees have to more closely reflect the costs associated with processing citizenship applications.
“These applicants will benefit from the processing improvements outlined above, and this is in keeping with user-pay principles and a move toward full cost recovery in the citizenship program,” it said
More than 260,000 became new citizens which is more new Canadians than in any year in Canada’s history and more than double the number from last year.
Through recent changes to the Citizenship Act, the government claims it has made strides over the past year to improve the citizenship application process, and applicants are already seeing results.
• A new citizenship decision-making process, which came into force August 1, has streamlined the process from three steps to one. Since implementing the new process, more than 115,000 people have become Canadian citizens – a 90 percent increase from the same time period last year.
• Canada’s citizenship application backlog has been reduced by 17 percent since June 2014, and is at its lowest level in almost three years.
• The government is on track to eliminate the citizenship application backlog and reduce processing times to less than one year sometime in the next fiscal year.
Applications for a grant and resumptions of citizenship to a minor are exempt from this change. The $100 Right of Citizenship fee for successful applicants remains the same. Other fees for services, such as for citizenship proofs, are not changing.
“With a record number of new Canadians this year, it is clear that our government’s changes to the Citizenship Act are having a real impact on the number of new citizens welcomed to the Canadian family. With more than 260,000 new citizens embracing Canadian values and traditions in 2014, we are fulfilling our commitment to reducing backlogs and, improving processing times,” said Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander,
