Canadian Citizenship: Avoiding Fraud

Citizenship and Immigration Canada is very serious about fraudulent applications and this is why it is incredibly important to be absolutely honest when applying for citizenship. Sometimes immigrants who apply for citizenship have difficulty with the application and this leads to unintentional misrepresentation, but by applying with Immigration Direct, the process becomes easier and the likelihood of errors decreases.

Although there has been a backlog in Canadian immigration for a long time now, this is changing with Minister Kenney’s administration. He has focused on this issue for two reasons: to prevent fraud and to speed up the process for legitimate immigrants.

Canada recognizes that receiving more immigrants in the future (and particularly in 2013) will benefit the country immeasurably. The immigration of individuals with special skills, advanced knowledge or even just different viewpoints will contribute significantly to the intellectual and cultural capital of the country making it an increasingly important place in the world. Truly, there has never been a better time in history to immigrate to Canada because of its government’s excitement about increasing immigration numbers.

However, one of the very valuable attributes of Canada’s government has led to some problems for immigrants. Canada’s government takes the idea of rule of law (the political concept that says that everyone within society is subject to the law as it is written and is deserving of equal treatment) as a basic right and as a result some immigrants who became citizens years ago are having their certificates revoked because it was discovered that they had gained citizenship fraudulently. Some people claim that it is unfair for the government to take away citizenship because they have already been citizens for so long, but if it was discovered that they didn’t apply legally they can still be removed.

This government is particularly serious about this considering that recently 530 people had their citizenship removed. For comparison consider that before this crackdown there was about one revocation per year. The increase in frequency is quite large.

Minister Kenney and Citizenship and Immigration Canada argue that the rule of law must be upheld and those who defrauded the immigration system must answer for their infractions. Ignorance will not be considered an excuse in these cases. When applying for citizenship you should be very aware of the laws surrounding immigration so that you can live in Canada for as long as you wish without having any trouble with the government.

A good start on this path to immigration responsibility is accurately and truthfully answering all of the questions on whatever application you are filing. Some people lie on their applications because they are afraid that they will be rejected outright if they mention an arrest that occurred years before. At the time of the application immigration officials will consider the circumstances of such an event and you may still be given citizenship. However, if you don’t mention such an arrest (even if it is seemingly insignificant) you may have your certificate revoked outright simply because you lied.

Overall the most important thing to keep in mind when applying for immigration benefits is that being honest and truthful will get you to where you want to be.