{"id":164188,"date":"2018-05-18T18:41:01","date_gmt":"2018-05-18T22:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=164188"},"modified":"2018-05-18T18:41:01","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T22:41:01","slug":"canada-increases-number-of-citizenship-judges-from-5-to-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/05\/18\/canada-increases-number-of-citizenship-judges-from-5-to-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada increases number of citizenship judges from 5 to 14"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Canada\u2019s<\/a>
Canada\u2019s federal government has increased the number of citizenship judges it employs from five to 14 just months after it relaxed the requirements for obtaining Canadian citizenship. (ShutterStock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canada\u2019s federal government has increased the number of citizenship judges it employs from five to 14 just months after it relaxed the requirements for obtaining Canadian citizenship.<\/p>\n

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada announced the appointment of nine new judges and the re-appointment of one judge to a new term on May 17.<\/p>\n

Prior to Thursday\u2019s appointments, Canada only had five citizenship judges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe appointments will ensure operations needs are able to met across the country,\u201d IRCC spokesperson Carl Beauchamp told CIC News in an email.<\/p>\n

In October 2017,\u00a0new citizenship rules took effect<\/a>\u00a0that reduced the number of residency years an individual had to accumulate before he or she could apply for\u00a0Canadian citizenship<\/a>\u00a0from four years out of six to three years of five.<\/p>\n

The changes also allow permanent residents who spent time in Canada as a foreign worker, international student, or protected person before transitioning to permanent residence to count each day spent in Canada on temporary status as half a day of residency, up to a maximum of 365 days.<\/p>\n

The government also removed the requirement that applicants had to be physically present in Canada for 183 days or more in four out of the six years preceding their application.<\/p>\n

Changes result in application surge<\/h3>\n

The week after the new rules were introduced, CBC News said applications jumped from a weekly average of 3,653 to 17,500.<\/p>\n

Beauchamp said the purpose of the new hires is to ensure applicants \u201chave access to citizenship as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citizenship judges make decisions on some citizenship applications, preside over citizenship ceremonies and administer the oath of citizenship to new citizens.<\/p>\n

More than 105,000 new Canadians were administered the oath at an estimated 1,400 citizenship ceremonies in 2017, according to IRCC.<\/p>\n

Citizenship judges are appointed by the Governor in Council on the recommendation of Canada\u2019s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship. New appointees are selected through an open, transparent and merit-based process, IRCC says.<\/p>\n

\u201cCandidates for citizenship judge appointments are evaluated against the skills required by the position: judgment\/analytical thinking; decision-making; effective communication; cross-cultural sensitivity; and community standing,\u201d IRCC said in a news release.<\/p>\n

The newly appointed judges represent diverse professional backgrounds and include lawyers, a career public servant, communications professionals, a chartered accountant, and members of Canada\u2019s armed forces.<\/p>\n

The 14 judges are located in Halifax, Montreal, the Greater Toronto Area, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver and Surrey, British Columbia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canada\u2019s federal government has increased the number of citizenship judges it employs from five to 14 just months after it …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":8083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[398,51044],"class_list":["post-164188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-immigration","tag-canada","tag-citizenship-judges","mauthors-stephen-smith","mauthors-cic-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}