Judge hearing and events after that

Citizenship is a privilege and not a right.

With time, people are starting to forget that. And there are some who wish to get citizenship as an accessory to their life for a better travel access to some countries without visas which the Federal Govt is now aware of and they are trying hard to track those people down and limit others from doing the same. Perhaps, this is why the judge is being tough? But I should add that having a US citizenship will be questioned pretty extensively. It was easy back in the day and but now-a-days, these type of red flags are being questioned.

Basic idea of a citizenship is: People, families who move to Canada to have a safe and secured life for themselves and their children. Or contribute to work force, if you are a rocket scientist. They come here, work, live, send kids to school, grow up, grow old, etc. But when you have a US citizenship already, a country that can provide you exactly the same, may be even better, benefits, privileges, secured life and what not. Why Canada?

Firstly, what does not make sense to these judges are insignificant things like, why are you opting to pay taxes in two different countries?? Albeit, you may manage to pay nothing here in Canada, you still have to file taxes as a non-resident Canadian for you and everyone in your family and have to go through extra work for it. Why?

In what instance would you require two citizenship? I mean, there are multiple ways for Canadians to live in the US and vice-a-versa. So, this is a question that will be tough to make a citizenship judge explain no matter how much mumbo jumbo we discuss, the fact is a fact, which dpenabill already stated, which is, 'Why go for a Canadian Citizenship when you already have the US citizenship??'

Regarding your entry/exit records: Did you not get a CBSA report and submit that? The CBSA report has all the record of your entry with date, time, officer, type of immigrant, etc. And I believe, as per my research, starting last year US & Canada amalgamated their customs/immigration system and therefore, they can see everything on both sides. Did you not get documents USCBP? There is a site that will allow you to see all your I-94 records, i don't know what site but there is one. Secondly, why wouldn't you declare your one day trips?? As per the residency calculator, it asks you to not to bother to enter because the calculator shows it as a "0". But does the questionnaire ask you to that it is mandatory that you do not enter? No. So, what I did for my wife, is enter even those couple of hour mall trips to Buffalo in the questionnaire. You have to understand that the questionnaire has a "reason" for your travel. That would have reduced a lot of harassment you received as these judges do not have time to really sit down, be in your shoes and picture those travel. Basically, I entered all dates, be that for couple of hrs with the "reason" and the calculator will put that as a "0" (Zero) and would not be counted towards your days absent. Great! Therefore, it sounds to me that you were actually not well prepared for this esp considering you have a unique situation, even after the RQ, unless you probably stated that in your explanations but I didn't notice. But if you didn't, then your application is technically incomplete, esp your travel dates, which is a BIG part of your citizenship process, regardless you holding a good job, having a property and such.

Bottom line: Do not leave any room for error or questioning in your case. Considering your situation, you would be questioned even if you did not leave any room for questioning but it sounds like you did and they are now at the point of not questioning but more of an interrogation and harassment.

My wife's situation:

2009:
Landed 2009.
3 month travel outside North America coupled with multiples trips to the US, every other long weekend.

2010:
Multiple trips to the US, every other long weekend.

2011:
4 month trip outside North America coupled with multiples trips to the US, every other long weekend.

2012:
2 month trip outside North America coupled with multiples trips to the US, every other long weekend.

2013:
5 month trip outside North America coupled with multiple trips to the US, every other long weekend.

2014:
Applied for citizenship

2014 Oct: Test after which the officer told my wife that there is a discrepancy in dates so Oath has been delayed but no RQ.

2015 Jan: Reached out to my wife asking her to drop by CIC office. She did and it was actually my error. I confused Oct (10) with January (01) so that was the mistake, but she understood, updated file and.....

2015 Feb: Oath

In my wife's situation, I declared ALL & EVERY trip, even those one day mall trips.

I am not blaming anyone, finding fault, being critical, but just discussing and explaining what I personally did for my wife so that perhaps you can do the same and be successful. I wish you all the best, buddy.

sarin_j wrote: First of all, I am not sure about Citizenship being a right Vs. privilege arguments, but my point is that the conditions set by CIC for Citizenship were met and then some more. CIC don't read my mind to decide I don't intend to live in Canada or not and honestly if they haven't specified in paper then it has no legal standing. .... I have applied to CBSA twice before appearing for the interview and never got a response. I tried calling to no avail. Even recently my application was processed incorrectly and now am chasing ghosts from CBSA to get it properly done. I did explain this in my notes to the CJ and did provided copies of letters as proof. As for CBP, I wrote, I called and nothing ever got a response. Their current I-94 system goes back only 5 years and that was not available when I submitted my application. That site is https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/request.html But like I said, it goes back only 5 years. Its not gonna help me. I have already requested in an email for records going back to 2006. Will wait and see what happens.

why and how can CBSA not send you the in-and-out info, twice? I also ordered it twice last year and both of them were received correctly in the mail after 1-2 months of the request. are you sure you have asked for it through ATIP?

The outcome you describe is, as much as I can discern, not unusual. The consensual withdrawal of an appeal pursuant to this or that condition or agreement is, I think, quite common.

I am no expert, not a Canadian lawyer, and cannot begin to second-guess the deal the lawyer made on your behalf.

Not sure why your attorney is not responding. Best I can offer is to continue to make an effort to communicate with the lawyer's office.

I am not clear what "re-evaluation" means in your case. But that is probably the best outcome you could have obtained in the Federal Court anyway. However, that is very much dependent on there being, in fact, a re-evaluation of the case.

I am guessing it is a bit too early to jump to conclusions about the status of things. That noted, your anxiety is natural and I fully concur in your continued effort to find out the status of your case. If the CIC help line confirms that the case has been put into a track for re-evaluation, that is where it should be and that, again, is all a Federal Court could have ordered CIC to do (that is, that is as good as winning the appeal). But where it goes from here and why eCas is not showing an active case I cannot guess.

Stay after it and again please let us know how this goes.

And good luck.

sarin_j wrote: Here is an update on my application. After I posted my experience here, I was contacted by an attorney from Edmonton, Alberta who offered his service to take up my fight against CIC. His rates were affordable and I decided to work with him. The firm's name was Knisely Nagase Anderson LLP and his name was Martin Stoyanov. He immediately started moving the paperwork as we didnt have many days for the 30 day deadline. He explained the whole process to me and was very prompt in responding to my questions. He filed my documents and requested from CIC all the paperwork associated with my application. At about the same time I also applied for my travel records from DHS for all the crossings I made between Canada and US. Finally when the records obtained from CIC were reviewed, it substantiated EVERY points I made against the judge's decision in my earlier post. The attorney himself was shocked to see that the judge lied through her teeth especially around not submitting my US GC !!! He was very confident on my case and few weeks later, I got the news from him that the CIC attorney has asked us to drop the case and in return they would send my application for re-evaluation. We were asked to sign the Notice of Discontinuance if we agree to this deal. I asked about the timelines involved because if this whole thing was going to take another 2 to 3 years, its rather useless to me. He got the response from the CIC attorney that matters like this are concluded rather quickly. So we agreed and signed the Notice of Discontinuance effectively reversing the denial and ending our case. We were very happy with the outcome and the way the attorney handled our case. Unfortunately this happiness was short lived and I now suspect we have traded the rock for a hard place. At this point, we have no idea what the status of our application is. When I contacted the CIC through their helpline, they could see that our application has been sent back for re-evaluation but they can't say anything else. They recommended us to contact our attorney. My repeated pleas\requests to the attorney so far yielded zero responses. And today when I checked my status online, the system can't even find my details based on client# or file ID. I assume this is because may be they closed my original application and started a new one. But so far no communication from CIC about any of this. Is there anyone who can shed some light on my current situation?

In addition to being NO expert, I have no exposure to these sorts of transactions in Canada.

Beyond that, in general it appears to be genuine, as in it appears to be what it purports to be. And thus it does indeed appear that this is headed back to CIC (obviously, though, as of this communication, your lawyer still needed to prepare and submit the Notice of Discontinuance).

Particularly if this was received somewhat recently, I would not be much worried but would expect things to take some time. Not a whole lot of time perhaps, but weeks or months.

Your case will probably go back to a CIC Citizenship Officer for a re-evaluation. But that is not entirely clear. It could be referred to another CJ hearing with a different Citizenship Judge without first being re-assessed by a CIC Citizenship Officer. I do not know how CIC is handling these matters these days.

I do not recall the status of your evidence, but you now have an opportunity to gather any additional evidence you might not have had at the earlier hearing. You should have border entry records from the U.S. in addition to the CBSA Travel History, at the least.

While the transition in government taking place should not directly affect the processing of applications much, things will probably move a bit more slowly for awhile as some staff may be diverted to engage in transitional work.

Caution: You might be surprised by a sudden notice to appear for the oath. Remember, you cannot miss that scheduled event. If you miss that, the fact of being abroad is NOT an acceptable excuse or reason, and this could result in the summary termination of the application.

sarin_j wrote: Thank you dpenabill for the response. I will make another attempt to contact the attorney. My gut feeling is that he is intentionally avoiding me because I have left numerous voice mails, messages at the front desk and emails. If zero response, then that could be that he has no interest whatsoever in establishing contact with me. About the re-evaluation phrase I used, let me type up exactly what the letter states. May be that would make more sense. <font color="#ff0066">Kindly be advised that I have received instructions to consent to this application for leave and judicial review of the March 25, 2015 decision denying your client's application for grant of Canadian Citizenship. The terms of our consent are, on a without costs basis, upon receipt of a filed Notice of Discontinuance, the matter will be sent back to a new decision maker at CIC for re-determination. I trust this to be satisfactory, and will look forward to receiving your filed discontinuance in due course. Yours truly, MARIA GREEN Counsel Prairie Region Department of Justice Canada cc: Federal Court - Edmonton Via Facsimile:(780) 495-4681</font] I am trying hard to remember the exact term used by the lawyer, but am pretty sure it was re-evaluation. I plan to contact the helpline tomorrow to find out my status and why its not showing up online. So far no communication has been sent to my home in Canada. I hope this whole thing has gone into a blackhole of some sort. What is more concerning is the way the CIC changing their rules and in a rush to close out pending cases they might just throw out my application.

Wow, finally something! I would definitely hire a lawyer. Why take a chance?