Canada Speeds Up Citizenship Applications Process

Canada has some time ago introduced some reforms to reduce the backlog of country's citizenship  applications. The reforms have done fairly well. "Recent reforms are responsible for quicker citizenship  processing times and in reduction in the country's citizenship application backlog," said Chris Alexander,  Canada's Immigration Minister.

He also said the non-routine cases backlog has also reduced significantly and about 50% of the cases in  which a Residency Questionnaire (RQ) was issued prior to November 2013 are now completed.

The number of officers who evaluate RQs are more compared to earlier, and therefore new applicants  will be processed sooner. The process implemented from 1st August, 2014 after the amendments in the  Citizenship Act in June is playing a key role in reducing the backlog of citizenship applications.

There has been a significant increase of 172% in the number of people who opted for Canadian  citizenship compared to the same period last year.

Source: Expat Briefing