260,000 People Accepted Canadian Citizenship in 2014

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), 260,000 people accepted Canadian citizenship in 2014. It is double the number compared to 2013 and highest ever in an year in Canada's history. Reforms made to the Citizenship Act are considered to be the reason for such increase in naturalization applications.

Chris Alexander, Citizenship and Immigration Minister, said “With a record number of new Canadians this year, it is clear that our government’s changes to the Citizenship Act are having a real impact on the number of new citizens welcomed to the Canadian family, we are fulfilling our commitment to reducing backlogs and improving processing times."

The new citizenship process came into effect from 1st August, 2014, and reduced the overall steps to become a naturalized citizen from three to one. This resulted in a sharp 90% increase in applications compared to the same period last year. That apart, the application backlog have also reduced by a good 17% in the past few months.

In wake of the growing applications, CIC is expected to raise the citizenship processing fee from $300 to $530 w.e.f. 1st January, 2015.  However, all other fees such as for services and other citizenship proofs remain unchanged.

This is actually a good news to all those aspiring applicants who wish to migrate to Canada and settle there permanently.