Here at Immigrant Services Calgary, we have been receiving a lot of questions about the new citizenship requirements under the ‘Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act’, which became law in June of 2014. Two of the major changes in the new law are that applicants for citizenship must now spend at least 4 years out of 6 years physically present in Canada before becoming eligible to apply and that 14 to 64 year olds must meet language and knowledge requirements to obtain citizenship. However, these changes will not come into force until June or July of 2015.
This means that until that time, the current rules are still in effect!
You can find official information from Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) at the following link.
Another common question we get at Immigrant Services Calgary is about the language proficiency requirement for citizenship. This is not changing with the new act. To prove proficiency, you must show evidence in one of six approved ways. You can find this information on the CIC website at the following link.
Please note that the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) exam from Immigrant Services Calgary is not on the list of accepted proof of language proficiency for citizenship.
