October 7, 2015

This Week’s Featured Success Story: Federal Court Upholds Grant of Citizenship

Earlier this year a young woman’s citizenship application was approved by a Citizenship Judge. Instead of being called to take the Citizenship Oath, she was notified that Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) did not agree with the decision, and were seeking to have the Citizenship Judge’s decision overturned by the Federal Court. CIC argued that they had not seen the woman’s complete passports, and so were unable to confirm whether she had been in Canada as and when declared.

The woman explained that she had brought her passports to meet with the Citizenship Judge, and that he had reviewed the documents. Our office reviewed the complete passports; there was nothing inconsistent with what she had declared. We argued that the Citizenship Judge, and not CIC, was responsible for making the decision. The Citizenship Judge had the information required to make that decision and did not have any concerns with the woman’s credibility. The Federal Court agreed with our arguments, meaning that the young woman will be called for the Citizenship Oath and will become a citizen of Canada.