Canadian immigrants have to wait for the oath ceremony to be fully qualified for naturalization.

Because the federal government failed to fill the vacancy of citizen judges in time, the waiting time for Canadian immigrants to become naturalized was forced to be extended. Some immigration lawyers pointed out that not only the procedures for hearing some complicated naturalization cases have been lengthened, but also ordinary and simple naturalization applications have been affected. Qualifications have to wait for the oath ceremony.

Langford, chairman of the Immigration Department of the Canadian Bar Association and a practicing immigration lawyer in Calgary, said? In Edmonton, some people have met the naturalization requirements and received the approval notice, but because there is no citizen judge to preside over the naturalization ceremony, they will have to wait for several months to obtain citizenship. ?

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Federal Immigration Minister John McCallum (pictured below) responded that the government is currently appointing relevant candidates to fill the vacancy.

He said:? Some naturalization ceremonies may be presided over by others, and I think we can handle them; Of course, it is best to fill the vacancy completely, and I believe it will be completed soon. ?

This problem is blamed on the appointment process of the liberal government. Since the Liberal Party came to power for one year, there has been a backlog of more than 300 appointment cases, some of which are vacant and some have expired. The government explained that the delay was due to the need to introduce a more balanced reward and punishment system.

However, critics accuse the government of Prime Minister Trudeau? Paralysis? This vacancy led to the crisis of public law.

This week, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould filled 24 vacancies in the country and appointed Newfoundland Justice Malcolm Rowe as a Canadian Supreme Court judge.

There are only 13 citizen judges left.

But so far, the government has not appointed a citizen judge. Since September 20 15, the number of judges who can decide complex naturalization applications and preside over civil ceremonies has been reduced from 26 to 13.

Two of the remaining 13 citizen judges will expire within 60 days, so they will not accept new cases.

The government website shows that the naturalization procedure has been extended. 80% of the applications submitted after 20 1 September and April of that year can be completed within 12 months; Applications submitted before April 1 of that year shall be completed before 20 16 3 1.

Now the website shows that the application processing time after April of 15 is still 12 months, but the estimated processing time of applications submitted before April of 15 has been deleted, which means that the unapproved cases belong to? Unconventional? (unconventional), the decision of a citizen judge is required.

The internal report said that it was extended to 28 months.

According to an internal report of the Immigration Department obtained by Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland, the approval process of all naturalization applications, including routine and unconventional cases, was extended from 65,438+09 months in 2065,438+00 to 28 months in 2065,438+04 and 2065,438+05.

Kurland said that immigration lawyers have witnessed serious delays in unconventional naturalization cases, some as long as four years.

? Cases in Ontario usually have to wait two to three years. Due to the vacancy of judges, some applicants' hearings have to be conducted by video, which may have never happened before. ?

From the judicial point of view, it is unfair to hold a video hearing on such an important matter as naturalization as a Canadian citizen.