Ottawa will continue online citizenship tests after success of pilot program

2021/02/08 Leave a comment

After a slow start, some encouraging news:

Ottawa’s groundbreaking virtual citizenship exam pilot program has exceeded its target intake, and more online tests will be scheduled.

Since the exam was launched virtually at the end of November, more than 6,700 applicants have taken the test, surpassing the initial target of 5,000, according to Asim Zaidan of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

“Prior to the pandemic, IRCC had embarked on a citizenship modernization program to improve client service delivery. Online tests are a part of this program, and have been prioritized due to COVID-19,” Zaidan told the Star in an email.

“Moving citizenship events — ceremonies, tests and interviews — to an online format is a part of the department’s goal of bringing efficiencies to the citizenship program and simplifying the application process.”

The pandemic has slowed much of the department’s operations due to reduced processing capacity as staff moved — and continued — to work from home. The delay led to a ballooning backlog of more than 85,000 people awaiting a test and thousands of others in the queue to be officiated as new Canadians.

While citizenship exams were resumed only virtually two months ago, online citizenship ceremonies returned earlier in June. To date, almost 50,000 new Canadians have taken their oath at 8,000 virtual ceremonies.

“This has been successful thus far. At this point, the new testing platform is still being assessed,” said Zaidan.

“A further number of applicants continue to be invited to take the online test, and we continue to monitor system performance closely and make improvements if necessary.”

Acquiring citizenship is an important rite of passage for immigrants, affording permanent residents the privileges only enjoyed by citizens such as voting in elections and access to a Canadian passport.

A recent government review of the citizenship program found that half of the three million permanent residents admitted to Canada between 2005 and 2015 became citizens by the end of 2018, while another 7 per cent had already applied for citizenship.

The top five birth countries of new citizens were the Philippines, India, China, Pakistan and Iran. Those born in China, India, the Philippines, the United States and the United Kingdom accounted for more than of half of the permanent residents who did not apply for Canadian citizenship.

Fifty-one per cent of naturalized citizens had a university degree, compared to just 40 per cent among those who had not applied.

Citizenship uptake rate also varies for different populations, and has declined among more recent immigrants, suggesting newcomers are taking longer to become citizens, the evaluation report said.

The citizenship application fee for an adult includes a $530 processing fee and a $100 right to be a citizen fee. Twenty-eight per cent of the 12,718 citizens and permanent residents surveyed by the immigration department in the report said the cost had delayed or was preventing them from apply for citizenship.

The cost presented an even bigger challenge for resettled refugees and protected persons, as well as those with a personal income less than $60,000 and from families with five or more people.

In 2019, right after the Liberals won a minority government, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in a mandate letter tasked Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino to bring forward a plan to eliminate citizenship fees — a priority that has yet to be delivered.

When asked about the plan, the Immigration Department’s Zaidan said, “We are committed to bringing forward a plan on this and look forward to having more to say in due course.”

Former citizenship director-general Andrew Griffith was not impressed by the government’s glacial pace at getting rid of the citizenship fees.

To him, this delay, as well as the new citizenship guide that’s been promised since Mendicino’s pre-predecessor John McCallum five years ago, suggests citizenship is not a priority for the government.

“The minister doesn’t get too many complaints about citizenship. He gets more complaints about immigration-related matters. It’s a lower profile issue politically and it makes the bureaucracy pay less attention,” Griffith said.

“In the year of COVID, things slipped and the pandemic could’ve had an impact but it is not supposed to be a get-out-of-jail card.”

The Immigration Department said it is consulting a wide range of stakeholders in revising the citizenship guide, including many groups under-represented in previous editions, such as Indigenous peoples, women, minority communities, Francophones and Canadians with disabilities. A launch date has not yet been determined.

Source: Ottawa will continue online citizenship tests after success of pilot program

Filed under Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

About Andrew
Andrew blogs and tweets public policy issues, particularly the relationship between the political and bureaucratic levels, citizenship and multiculturalism. His latest book, Policy Arrogance or Innocent Bias, recounts his experience as a senior public servant in this area.

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