If Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada rejects a citizenship application, applicants for Canadian citizenship have two options: they can reapply or ask the Federal Court of Canada for a judicial review (IRCC). What to do if the Citizenship application is refused?
More than “354,000 individuals became citizens of Canada in more than 3,000 citizenship ceremonies [conducted] across the nation” in 2023. This is based on information provided by the IRCC.
While this figure is a minor down from 2022, when slightly over 375,000 foreign nationals obtained Canadian citizenship, the number of individuals obtaining Canadian citizenship has significantly increased during the previous four years.
The number of new Canadian citizens in 2023 was almost 39% greater than four years earlier, while this number was just 254,513 in 2019.
Even though the number of foreign people obtaining Canadian citizenship has increased recently, many candidates may still have their citizenship petitions denied by IRCC. In such a scenario, candidates have two choices:
Option 1: Reapply for Canadian citizenship
In the case that the IRCC rejects an application for Canadian citizenship, the applicant is free to reapply at any time. In other words, there is no waiting period mandated by the federal government, therefore applicants are free to reapply for Canadian citizenship whenever they so want.
The IRCC makes it clear that in addition to “all required forms and documents,” new citizenship applications must also be submitted with payment of a new application fee. Furthermore, applicants are advised by Canada’s immigration service to confirm that they fulfill the conditions for Canadian citizenship before reapplying.
Option 2: Request a Judicial Review
The alternative that applicants have is to request a judicial review of the Federal Court of Canada’s ruling. Applicants denied citizenship have thirty days to request a judicial review “from the date [indicated] on the refusal letter.”
A judicial review “is not an appeal of the decision,” according to the IRCC.
Applying for leave is the first stage in the two-part process that leads to obtaining a court review of a citizenship application rejection.
According to the IRCC, “leave” in this sense refers to “permission” for the Court to hear a matter orally.
“The applicant must satisfy the Court that the application [for their judicial review] raises” either “a serious issue [or] an arguable issue upon which the application might succeed,” according to the IRCC, to be successful in this initial step.
One of two things will usually happen at this point. The judge of the Federal Court will either grant “leave to commence an application for judicial review” or deny the request for leave.
The IRCC states that the applicant will have their application dismissed in the first scenario, where the leave request is rejected. Therefore, the application “proceeds no further because the Court’s leave decision cannot be appealed.”
In contrast, “the Court [then sets] a hearing date [as well as certain relevant] timeframes” about the case when leave is granted by a Federal Court judge. The Court may establish deadlines for items like the parties’ submission of their separate arguments and the date of the cross-examination.
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