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INTERVIEW: Test-Event - ID/Documents Verification

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kisunja85 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kisunja85 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2014 at 1:10pm
canuck 25, I did not know I was a majority :) My friends who had had the test this summer definitely had their files reviewed and the questioning was extensive. 
2-4 months until the oath is the timeline I was given, and I am fine with it. I just hope there would be no delays beyond that.
Citizenship application

Sent 01/2013;IP:03/2013, Test 10/2014
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greeny View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote greeny Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2014 at 1:48pm
Originally posted by kisunja85 kisunja85 wrote:

Just had my test yesterday in Edmonton. Surprisingly, the lady conducting my interview explicitly told me that my documents have not been really reviewed yet and she has not seen them before either. Apart from standard questions (do you rent or own? where do you work?) the interview was more of a id and passport stamp verification event. At the end, she told me that I would be contacted should questions about my docs arise. 
One the one hand, the procedure makes sense: make the citizenship officer touch all the docs ONCE and have all evidence, tests included, to make a decision. 
But for me, it also means that I might expect an unwanted surprise in the mail (a.k.a. RQ-lite) and that is not nice.
is not nice.
did you have all expired passports with you? 
landed: May, 2003

applied: Dec04,2009

test/RQ: Feb15,2011 st.clair
2nd RQ: Aug 2014
Total waiting time to oath: 60,5 months :)= 5 years and 14 days
oath- Dec , 2014
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kisunja85 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kisunja85 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2014 at 2:21pm
Yes, covering my temp (student) status as well as permanent status up to citizenship application. The verifying person was not interested in the current passport (received after applying) but did go over the previous ones verifying each and  every stamp against residency calculator. She also verified the date of initial entry (on a study permit in my case).

Edited by kisunja85 - 08 Oct 2014 at 2:22pm
Citizenship application

Sent 01/2013;IP:03/2013, Test 10/2014
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dpenabill View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dpenabill Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2014 at 3:27pm

Originally posted by kisunja85 kisunja85 wrote:


Just had my test yesterday in Edmonton. Surprisingly, the lady conducting my interview explicitly told me that my documents have not been really reviewed yet and she has not seen them before either. Apart from standard questions (do you rent or own? where do you work?) the interview was more of a id and passport stamp verification event. At the end, she told me that I would be contacted should questions about my docs arise.
One the one hand, the procedure makes sense: make the citizenship officer touch all the docs ONCE and have all evidence, tests included, to make a decision.

But for me, it also means that I might expect an unwanted surprise in the mail (a.k.a. RQ-lite) and that is not nice.
is not nice.

Originally posted by kisunja85 kisunja85 wrote:

canuck 25, I did not know I was a majority :) My friends who had had the test this summer definitely had their files reviewed and the questioning was extensive.
2-4 months until the oath is the timeline I was given, and I am fine with it. I just hope there would be no delays beyond that.

It may be that many or even most applicants are told something which, in effect, suggests that their documents have not been reviewed, but it is almost certain that the file, including documents submitted by the applicant, are screened multple times prior to the test event itself, including a specific pre-interview check, which among other things is specifically mandated so that interviewers will be able, where appropriate, to better address and resolve potential issues through questions at the interview.

The interview you describe is very similar to the interview most often described, including my own.

It is most likely that the statement about the documents not having been really reviewed is in reference to the review to be done by a decision-maker. The interviewer is not a decision-maker (usually), just an information-gatherer. The interviewer has undoubtedly (if the interviewer was doing his or her job) reviewed the file, but not in a decision-making or assessment mode, rather in a mode to identify whether there are questions, in addition to the standard ones (set out in the FRC), which could help the decision-maker assess the applicant.

Once the interviewer has gathered the relevant information (including responses to questions at the interview), the file, with the interviewer's notes, goes to a decision-maker for a review which will be an assessment of the applicant's qualifications, including residency.

That is, regardless of what impression the interviewer gave you, it is almost certain that your application was indeed substantively examined prior to the interview, and probably by the person who interviewed you, but not assessed per se, or in a decision-making sense "reviewed."

(My sense is that many interviewers have a style in which they deliberately convey a degree of detachment, in large part because they really are detached from evaluating the applicant or the applicant's documents, their role being to gather information not judge it.)

Good luck.



Interview and Related Procedures Revisited

We have not seen a copy of the File Requirements Checklist more recent than the one in use in the summer of 2012, and of course we know that OB 407 (which included that version of the FRC) has been amended multiple times since then, but the basic outline of procedure reflected in that version of the FRC is almost certainly still the one in use.

I say that recognizing that aspects of the currently used version of the FRC are certainly different in some important respects due to new procedural provisions which took effect August 1st. But, there is little or no reason to suspect that there has been any major change to the pre-test and interview procedure.

That procedure mandates a pre-interview check, and among its overt purposes (as reflected in the OB and in CIC memos discussing its implementation) is to prepare the interviewer for the interview.

Additionally, there was a review of the application done in Sydney before the file was transferred to the local office; while the purpose of that review is to determine whether a pre-test RQ should be issued, it is nonetheless a review of the file resulting in some notations entered into the FRC (which stays with the file).

With only one known exception (the one that provided us with a copy of the FRC back in 2012), it is my impression that CIC does not release a copy of the FRC to applicants (even if specifically requested in an ATIP application), so applicants do not have access to any of the notations entered in the FRC attendant that initial review in Sydney, nor in the pre-interview check, nor even the interview itself (the FRC has check boxes for all these review steps, as well as spaces to enter narrative comments). All the applicant is given in response to an ATIP application, relative to the FRC, is the concluding notations entered in GCMS . . . even if the applicant specifically requests the physical file.

It appears to be correct (though this may vary from local office to local office) that the interviewer is usually NOT a decision-maker but is an information-gatherer. The interviewer's review of the file in the pre-interview check, for example, is not to draw any conclusions about the applicant's qualifications, but rather to organize and sort the information, identify potential issues, identify questions to be asked of particular applicants at the interview. Then this person should be the one, ordinarily, to conduct the interview, but the extent to which this is done is unknown. The interviewer then compiles the information obtained, and that is in turn submitted to the decision-maker. Whether or not the decision-maker, at that stage, is a Citizenship Officer or not we do not know. And, in particular, it is most likely at this step that the new procedure adopted in June, taking effect August 1st, takes over.

If the file is then reviewed by a Citizenship Officer, there will be a decision to grant citizenship or to pursue further processing (ranging from investigations to RQ, or specific requests for addtional documents, called RQ-lite by some but such requests can be about matters other than residency and thus are not always a RQ-lite . . . they can related to identity or potential criminal or security issues, among other purposes).

It is possible, quite feasible actually, that the decision-maker at that step is not a Citizenship Officer, but someone in a position with some decision-making authority, and the decision they make is whether to track the application for approval by a Citizenship Officer or to track it for further processing.

For what applicants see, it does not make that much of a difference. Following the interview most routinely processed applicants will have their applications approved and be scheduled for the oath . . . some sooner than others, but most within a matter of days, weeks, or a few months at most. Some applicants, however, will not be summarily approved in this way and so the timeline after the interview will vary greatly. Not every wrinkle in the procedure at this stage will necessarily cause a big delay, but some will. We have seen reports from some applicants given follow-up document requests, after the test, who were nonetheless scheduled for the oath within a few months. And we have seen more than a few whose case still loiters on the darkside of an indefinite timeline with little information about how long it is likely to be.

Note: It may make sense, as you say, that the procedure is to "make the citizenship officer touch all the docs ONCE and have all evidence, tests included, to make a decision . . . "

But, CIC has trended toward multiple review steps for a number of reasons. CIC is careful to distinguish the one-step decision-making from a process of many steps involving an examination (which I would call a "review") of the file in the course of preparing it to be submitted to the decision-maker.

In particular, as I outline above, my sense is that the one step review is in fact done, when it comes to decision-making, such that a Citizenship Officer probably does not even see a file until all the information gathering steps are complete. But again there are nonetheless multiple steps involving some review of the file, including documents, along the way to that stage.

There are legal reasons why CIC consolidates the decision-making into such a single step, a big one being that an applicant is entitled to see everything the decision-maker sees and considers in making the decision. CIC does not want to share with the applicant what it does with the file in its processing steps, what intermediate processing decisions are made or the basis for them.

The ATIP provisions run into a wall, a closed-curtain, since CIC does not need to divulge its investigatory methods or tools. Thus, for example, it appears that the one known exception to CIC releasing a copy of an applicant's FRC was an oversight, not to be repeated. My sense is that CIC has, deliberately, effectively rendered the ATIP process quite useless except in certain limited circumstances.


Bureaucracy is what bureaucracy does, or When in doubt, follow the instructions. Otherwise, follow the instructions.



BTW: Not an expert, not a Can. lawyer, never worked in immigration
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greeny View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote greeny Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2014 at 6:29pm
Originally posted by kisunja85 kisunja85 wrote:

Yes, covering my temp (student) status as well as permanent status up to citizenship application. The verifying person was not interested in the current passport (received after applying) but did go over the previous ones verifying each and  every stamp against residency calculator. She also verified the date of initial entry (on a study permit in my case).
do you have any self/un-employement ?
landed: May, 2003

applied: Dec04,2009

test/RQ: Feb15,2011 st.clair
2nd RQ: Aug 2014
Total waiting time to oath: 60,5 months :)= 5 years and 14 days
oath- Dec , 2014
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coldnomad View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote coldnomad Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2014 at 7:15pm
I have seen multiple reports here of oath invitations given on the same day as the test/interview. Which contradicts some statements here that interviewer and decision maker are different people, or that there is a "standard" between various CIC offices in terms of processing steps.
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kisunja85 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kisunja85 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Oct 2014 at 10:48pm
Originally posted by greeny greeny wrote:


do you have any self/un-employement ?

No unemployment thanks to grad school. I did some freelance work for local consulting firms, so I submitted contracts and made sure those gigs appear on my Linkedin profile (just in case they google it :)). We'll see if that helps.
Citizenship application

Sent 01/2013;IP:03/2013, Test 10/2014
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greeny View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote greeny Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Oct 2014 at 12:10am
Originally posted by kisunja85 kisunja85 wrote:

Originally posted by greeny greeny wrote:


do you have any self/un-employement ?

No unemployment thanks to grad school. I did some freelance work for local consulting firms, so I submitted contracts and made sure those gigs appear on my Linkedin profile (just in case they google it :)). We'll see if that helps.
if it took long period of time , let's say 6 months and up, it could trigger RQ, otherwise I do not think it will happen , fingers're crossed , you'll get an oath letter instead!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote links18 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Nov 2014 at 7:53pm
Does anyone have a sense of how the interviews are going now that the citizenship officer has approval authority?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ronin21 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Nov 2014 at 5:34pm
The interview process is almost same as before, not changed. The person who conducts the interview is not necessarily the same citizenship officer who approves your file. The sole purpose of interview is gathering information and verifying your documents. 
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