Ottawa to Hike Citizenship Fees Once Again

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Ottawa has announced to raise the citizenship application fee for the second time in less than a year. According to the announcement made on Wednesday, the fees will be augmented up to $530 per adult from Jan. 1, 2015, onwards. Earlier in February, Citizenship and Immigration Canada first increased the fee from $100 to $300 in order to recover its administrative costs.

Consequently, the latest raise would mean that the Canadian citizenship applicants will be paying almost five times more within a year. Quite noticeably, the successful candidates also have to pay another $100 rights of citizenship fee to become citizens. According to the officials, the fee changes are essential in order to afford the recent stricter citizenship process introduced by the government to clear a backlog it created with the “residence questionnaire,” i.e. aimed at scrutinizing if applicants have physically spent enough time in Canada to qualify for citizenship.

Immigration Minister, Chris Alexander, had earlier announced to set up a new streamlined decision-making process to cut the backlog in August, which has since been reduced by 17 per cent. It was highlighted that Canada welcomed a total of more than 260,000 new citizens this year. Alexander mentioned in a press statement that “with a record number of new Canadians this year, it is clear that our government’s changes to the Citizenship Act are having a real impact,” adding that “we are fulfilling our commitment to reducing backlogs and improving processing times.”

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