CANADA IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT FOUND THAT 2100 FOREIGNERS OBTAINING CITIZENSHIP LIED THEIR DETAILS ON APPLICATIONS WITH FURTHER 4000 BEING SUSPECTED OF FRAUD IN OBTAINING PERMANENT RESIDENCY BUT GOVT FACING MORE PROBLEMS AS 90% OF THE FOREIGN CITIZENS OR ABOUT 250 MOVED THE COURT AGAINST CANCELLATION OF THEIR CITIZENSHIP BY THE GOVT 14TH JANUARY 2014 OTTAWA — Government efforts to revoke the citizenship of those who’ve obtained it fraudulently have apparently hit a snag. According to the most recent Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) performance report, 90 per cent of all revocation notices, about 250, have wound up contested in Federal Court. “This is significantly higher than anticipated and has a very large impact on resources at CIC and its partners,” the report noted, suggesting the government was not prepared for the results of its crackdown. “CIC has decided to limit both the number of notices to revoke issued and the revocation cases ongoing before the Federal Court.” When the government first announced its citizenship fraud crackdown with great fanfare in July 2011, it said it was going after the citizenship of some 1,800 people thought to have lied on their application, often about the amount of time they lived in Canada before applying for citizenship. Under the current rules, a permanent resident is eligible for citizenship if they’ve lived in Canada for at least three of the last four years. By December, the target rose to 2,100 along with another 4,400 permanent residents suspected of fudging the residency requirements on their citizenship applications.] Though the government boasts that it has revoked the citizenship of 31 people, nearly double the number of revocations that occurred between 1977 and 2011, it’s still far short of the 291 notices of revocation issued over the last two-and-a-half years. CIC spokeswoman Johanne Nadeau said efforts are underway to “streamline” the revocation process and that the backlog will be dealt with in “due course.” Noting 1,894 permanent residents suspected of fraud have since withdrawn or abandoned their citizenship applications, she maintains the crackdown has been a success. “These figures mark a major accomplishment in deterring fraud and indicate the department’s dedication to strengthening the value of citizenship and combating citizenship fraud,” she said. Still, it leaves those contesting the government’s attempt to strip their citizenship in a difficult spot. Montreal immigration lawyer Patrizia Ruscio is representing a Dominican man here since 1990 with a family and a job. She said her client maintains he has done nothing wrong and was, perhaps, turned in by an associate with a bone to pick. Told of the government’s plan to revoke his citizenship a year-and-a-half ago, Ruscio said her client chose to fight the order in Federal Court. She said he has heard nothing since and is left in a state of heightened anxiety. Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland also has a client facing citizenship revocation. He believes the Lebanese-Canadian was targeted because he happened to use the services of a consultant later found to be crooked. He believes the government “cast its net” wider than it should have and that some, including his client, are justified in trying to now “extract” themselves from that net through the courts. Despite the backlog that’s created, Kurland argues the government was right to crack down on citizenship fraud as it has proven a deterrent for those truly aiming to game the system. Still, he admits his client’s particular situation raises a whole other set of issues. The man, who did not want to be identified, says he met the residency requirements when he obtained his citizenship even though he has since returned to live in Lebanon. According to CIC, 85 per cent of those targeted in the sweep reside outside the country. The government has long raised concerns about people who obtain citizenship just to get a Canadian passport. It was a key issue during the 2006 Lebanon-Israel war when Canada airlifted many dual national, so-called “Canadians of convenience” out of the region at a considerable expense only for them to return when tensions died down. Meanwhile, a Globe and Mail report this week cited recent Foreign Affairs documents that urge the government to crack down on the consular services provided to dual citizens who live outside Canada for extended periods. So long as people meet the residency requirements when they seek citizenship, Kurland maintains freedom of mobility in an increasingly global village is a right not to be messed with, but there are things the government could do to address the oft-frowned upon practice. Jacking the price of a passport to $1,500 for those who can’t produce a current Canadian drivers’ license, medicare card or recent tax return, he said, is a viable option. “I think that if you are a Canadian citizen, and want to have the benefits of being Canadian, without living in Canada or paying taxes in Canada, that you should be made to contribute financially somehow,” he said. “Right now, people from all over the world . . . legally acquire Canadian citizenship, and we don’t hear from them again … Occasionally … Canada picks up the tab to help Canadians overseas in times of distress . . . The $1,500 fee for a 10-year passport for non-resident Canadians would be an insurance premium to cover that kind of risk.”
Posted on: Sat, 18 Jan 2014 02:10:55 +0000
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