Question:
Item 11 of the citizenship application
states that an applicant should
"advise Citizenship and Immigration
Canada if any information on this
form changes before I take the Oath
of Citizenship". My question is
if I obtain permanent residence
in another country (Item 7-D on
the form) which I have to advise
CIC pursuant to Item 11 of form;
how will that affect my application
for citizenship?
Answer:
Yes, you should inform CIC about
the fact. Even if you do have to
report this, I don't think it's
clear if it would affect your eligibility
for Canadian citizenship. You do,
of course, have to keep your Canadian
permanent resident status intact
all the way up to the day on which
you are sworn in as a Canadian citizen.
Until about
a year ago, acquiring permanent
resident status in another country
was a pretty firm indication of
an intent to abandon Canada as your
primary residence -- which, in turn,
would automatically lead to loss
of your Canadian PR status and torpedo
your citizenship application (or,
if you hid the fact and it came
to light later, provide grounds
for revocation of citizenship).
The current Canadian immigration
law, however, doesn't say anything
about your intent to maintain PR
status.
The only criterion
for losing permanent residence (other
than criminal activity and the like)
is if you fail to meet a "two out
of five years in Canada" requirement.
Now, of course, if the other country
requires you to spend most of your
time there after you obtain permanent
residence there, then it would stand
to reason that you would eventually
fail to spend enough time in Canada
to retain Canadian PR status. But
if your citizenship application
is processed before that happens,
then it presumably wouldn't matter.
That's my
understanding of the current law
("Immigration and Refugee Protection
Act"), which you can find online
at: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/I-2.5/index.html
The relevant parts of the law are
sections 28 (which defines the "two-years-out-of-five"
rule) and 46 (which defines the
situations under which permanent
resident status can be lost). Nothing
in the current Canadian immigration
law makes obtaining another country's
PR status, in and of itself, a legal
reason for loss of Canadian PR status.
Thus it would
be perfectly possible to apply for
citizenship even if I am outside
of Canada as long as I can attend
test and oath taking. From what
I've heard, I believe this is possible,
although you would presumably still
need to spend enough time in Canada
-- even after filing your citizenship
application -- so that you would
still have met the "two-years-out-of-five"
rule until the day you were sworn
in as a Canadian citizen. Also,
Citizenship
and Immigration Canada won't accept
a non-Canadian mailing address when
processing a citizenship application
-- so you would have to have an
address in Canada, with someone
living there who could get your
mail and let you know about any
correspondence. And, of course,
as you said, you would need to be
able to come back to Canada on short
notice for the exam and the oath.
Finally, depending on the laws and
regulations of the other country
in question, it's possible that
officials of that other country
might not approve of your attempts
to obtain Canadian citizenship.
Although the
current Canadian law no longer has
any way of renouncing PR status
(except by staying outside Canada
for several years), maintaining
an active application for Canadian
citizenship could possibly be interpreted
by another country's government
as evidence that you want to keep
Canadian PR status (since Canadian
law requires you to do that in order
to remain eligible to become a Canadian
citizen).
Anybody knows
of any court rulings or citizenship
application instances that tested
this situation? Since the new Canadian
immigration law has only been in
force for about a year, I doubt
there would have been time by now
for any court rulings on this provision
of the new law.
