October\u00a015,\u00a02018 \u2013 Ottawa, ON \u2013<\/b>\u00a0This year during Citizenship Week, 6442 people became new Canadians at 72 special citizenship ceremonies across Canada. Citizenship Week (October 8-14) also marked the 1\u2011year anniversary of Bill\u00a0C\u20116, which brought in important changes to the Citizenship Act, helping qualified applicants get citizenship faster.<\/p>\n
For this year\u2019s Citizenship Week celebrations, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) took some of our newest Canadians to literal great heights. Citizenship Week celebrations opened with a special outdoor citizenship ceremony at the top of the CN Tower, with 6 of our newest Canadians taking the oath of citizenship while harnessed on the EdgeWalk, accompanied by Minister Ahmed Hussen. This ceremony was followed by other elevated ceremonies at the top of the Vancouver Lookout, on October\u00a011, and at the Olympic Stadium in Montr\u00e9al, on October\u00a012.<\/p>\n
As Citizenship Week fell during Women\u2019s History Month, citizenship ceremonies across Canada also celebrated the outstanding achievements of women who have shaped Canada, as Indigenous peoples, settlers, innovators and activists. Prominent women in civics, business, science and other areas were guest speakers at several of our special citizenship ceremonies across Canada.<\/p>\n
The changes from Bill\u00a0C\u20116 came into effect on October\u00a011,\u00a02017, and provided those wanting to become Canadian citizens with greater flexibility to meet the requirements. In particular, the changes reduced the time permanent residents must be physically present in Canada before applying for citizenship from 4 out of 6\u00a0years to 3 out of 5\u00a0years.<\/p>\n
By the end of October\u00a02018, an estimated 152,000\u00a0people will have obtained Canadian citizenship since the changes came into effect, an increase of 40%, compared to the 108,000\u00a0people who obtained citizenship in the same period the year before.<\/p>\n
Bill\u00a0C\u20116 has allowed more permanent residents to apply for citizenship. In the 9\u2011month period from October\u00a02017 to June\u00a02018, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada\u00a0(IRCC) received 242,680\u00a0applications, more than double the 102,261\u00a0applications that were received in the same period the year before. Despite the increase in applications, processing times for routine citizenship applications remain under 12\u00a0months.<\/p>\n
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SOURCE: IRCC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
October\u00a015,\u00a02018 \u2013 Ottawa, ON \u2013\u00a0This year during Citizenship Week, 6442 people became new Canadians…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n