The topic of Canadian citizenship has been in the news. Following an investigation by police and the border agency, the Canadian Immigration Minister announced on September 10, 2012 that Immigration and Citizenship Canada (“CIC”) is proceeding to revoke the citizenship of 3,100 persons who obtained it by fraud. The discovery of this vast fraud has resulted in a dramatic increase of the level of scrutiny of current applications. This will also no doubt affect future applications. There will be an impact not only on fraudulent applicants but also on honest ones.
The basic requirement to become a Canadian citizen is to have lived in Canada as a permanent resident for a period of three years (1,095 days) in the four years preceding the application. It is also possible to count as days present in Canada those spent in Canada before becoming a permanent resident (during the prescribed four-year period), as a worker or a student for instance, although these days are only counted by half.
