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Citizenship backlog to be reduced by closing dormant files

The Citizenship and Immigration authorities have indicated that commencing September 4, 2013, they will close the files of those who fail to attend scheduled multiple citizenship tests or interviews. Also, applications submitted on or after April 17, 2009 will be considered dormant and closed if applicants fail to provide proof of residency after receiving two notices from the citizenship authorities

A statement issued by Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander on September 5, 2013, indicates:

“Measures are being taken for applicants who do not show up for their scheduled citizenship test or interview.”

After a missed test or interview, applicants will be reminded in a final notice to contact CIC to provide a reasonable cause for not showing up. If the applicant provides a reasonable cause for missing their appointment, CIC will reschedule their test or interview. They will be given two opportunities over three months to provide a reasonable cause. Otherwise, their application will be closed.

Some examples of reasonable cause for missing a scheduled test or interview include:

being away to care for a dying parent;
inability to appear as a result of health constraints following an illness or accident; or
waiting for the arrival of documents requested from a third-party (requests for additional information only).

CIC sends notices to the applicant’s most-recent known address. Applicants are responsible for keeping their contact information with CIC up-to-date.”

The citizenship authorities estimate that this will allow the elimination of some 12,000 files currently in process. This is an effort to reduce the backlog of citizenship applications which has ballooned in recent years due to stricter assessments, including the almost blanket issuing of Residency Questionnaires to applicants.

Due to the backlog of citizenship applications currently in process, the processing time for a routine application now stands at 25 months, while a complicated application averages 35 months.

According to the Calgary Herald, the backlog of citizenship applications stood at 349,249 at the end of 2012. Realizing the problem that has been created by the over-zealous screening of applications, the recent federal budget included $44 million in taxpayer dollars to try to accelerate citizenship processing times.

What Our Clients Say

Matthew Jeffery Law Firm | Immigration Lawyer

4.7

WM V

03:54 27 Apr 19

The "Canadian Citizenship" application can be intimidating if you are not familiar with the proper steps to follow, in order to guarantee success. The Matthew Jeffery Law firm has given me total peace of mind by helping me with preparing my application and with the process as well (by making a complex and hard to understand process, easy to understand). I was assisted each step of the way, and informed of any new updates. The whole process was made simple and if I had a question, they were ready to explain. If you are looking for a firm which is very knowledgeable of the Citizenship application process, ready to answer your questions if you have any, staff who truly care of the outcome of your application, then this is the place to go. The Matthew Jeffery law firm is a God-sent!! I am also proud and happy to be able to call myself a "Canadian" now!!

Zena

22:57 17 Dec 18

I'm very pleased with Mr. Jeffery's expertise and knowledge. He's a fantastic lawyer to have on your side. We won the appeal! I recommend him wholeheartedly! Mr.Jeffery and his team make you a priority. You will get straight, realistic information to help your situation.

Alan Parker

15:06 15 Dec 18

I appreciate the distinguished legal service Matthew Jeffery provided with my immigration application. I have high degree of customer satisfaction with his professional work. I highly recommend Matthew to people who need legal advice or assistance in their immigration application.

John Farmer

15:47 14 Dec 18

Matthew is the reason my brother became a Canadian citizen. My family is so grateful for everything he has done. He took the time to hear our story and was honest with us up front. He never gave up on us or our case, and we will never forget it.

Saoking Lee

02:47 30 Oct 18

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!I want to say thank you for your amazing job! Mr Matthew Jeffery 10 years became our immigration solicitor, he worked hard with our case, his staff is very professional, finally we were able to get our permanent residence, my husband and I. I am very grateful for their excellent job and blessed to have him as our immigration solicitor after several years. I had a positive experience and I will highly recommend him as an immigration solicitor, thanks again for your support for several years!

Cristy Joy Josue

06:50 26 May 19

On behalf of me and my family.We would like to thank you for all your hardwork, for all the assistance you have provided us during our difficult times...Your expertise and help have been invaluable during this process.Thank you very much and more power!

Yiming Liu

22:22 31 May 19

I and my wife were in the deepest despair when we started to search legal help online for our immigration case which was declined along with some other 50+ applicants for the same reason. I did some research to see our chances and the more I learnt, the more hopeless I felt. Among many law firms I reached, Matthew's reply was the most honest and promising. Although lacking knowledge and understanding of Canadian immigration law, my instinct told me that Matthew is trustworthy and if anyone could do the impossible, it's him. The lawsuit took a couple of years. The wait was long and agonising but every now and then I received updates and further instructions from Matthew which brought me comfort. The result came victorious however the authority didn't wish to let go. There then were interview and procedural fairness letter which was frustrating and discouraging. Again I found not only legal help but also solace with Matthew, without them I might as well give up like others. Now that I'm writing this review in Canada all thanks to Matthew's expertise in immigration law but more importantly, his dedication and commitment for clients. If you are in need of any immigration or citizenship issue, Matthew's Law Firm is your best shot!

Andrew Enofe

17:32 04 Jul 19

I am highly impressed by the highest level of professionalism and Knowledge demonstrated by the law office of Matthew Jeffery. I applied for Canadian Citizenship in 2014 and my file was on hold since 2016, the office of the Mp’s could not help to resolve the issue, I was only told to wait. Before I contacted the law office of Matthew Jeffery, I had wasted time and money with some other incompetent law office. I meet with Jeffery Matthew in March 2019. In April mandamus appeal was file, immediately after the appeal was filed immigration removed the hold placed on my application for almost 5 years and placed my application on “Fast track” and I became a Canadian CITIZEN In Approximately 2 months after Matthew Jeffery filled mandamus appeal . 5 year of wait was over in just two months. Matthew Jeffery law office is the Best. I strongly recommend his law office for a Timely and Positive Outcome. Mr. Matthew Jeffery YOU ARE THE BEST. Thanks.Andrew

Lulu Ab

19:06 04 Jul 19

Highly recommend for Immigration related cases . My husband just got the confirmation for permanent residency. Very happy with the service.

Yiming Liu

22:22 31 May 19

Raj Patel Singh

03:19 15 Sep 19

The best immigration lawyer ever from my opinion. Great personality, very well time sense and positive result. Helped me to sponsor my wife to Canada from India

Mauricio Battle

13:51 17 Sep 19

Prompt and detailed responses through a complicated process. Matthew was consistently professional and patient with my endless questions. Thank you for my successful application.

Ruslan Ershenko

03:08 27 Sep 19

My friend who immigrated to Canada in 2015 suggested me to talk to Matthew. I called him over the skype and we discussed my options, he suggested Express Entry program, helped me collect all documents. I came to Canada 6 months after. Thank you Matthew Jeffery for helping me!

Tommy Swain

07:30 27 Sep 19

I am US citized and my fiancée is Canadian, and Matthew and his team have assisted us with the K-1 visa for my fiancee so that she might move to the US in advance of our upcoming wedding. Throughout the process, Matthew and his team have been extremely organized, knowledgeable, and thorough. Any questions we had were always promptly answered, so we always knew what to expect during the process. The team are all truly subject matter experts on immigration law.

Lisa M.Irwin

00:54 05 Oct 19

I am immensely grateful to mr jeffery who over the past 3 years has successfully dealt with two successive work permits for me and finally walked me through the permanent residence process. he is extremely particular about every detail and prompt in responding to urgent or specific demands. highly recommended

Gary Skelton

02:39 09 Oct 19

I have a very good experience with this office and the entire team. They were with me from start to end during my process. Matthew Jeffery is so wonderful and encouraging. Thanks to the team.

Amit Chawla

11:29 09 Oct 19

Mr Jeffery helped me obtain my PR card after I was away from Canada for more than five years. He presented my case really well putting forward clearly to IRCC the compelling circumstances that prevented me from returning to Canada. The best part is that Mr. Jeffery and his team are excellent communicators. The never misled and at the same time kept me optimistic. I really thank Mr Jeffery for the excellent service I received from their immigration law firm.

Vishal Verma

05:11 18 Oct 19

Thanks a lot to Matthew. He helped me prepare all documents for applying for my wife sponsorship. He's done very professional job. My application is going very smooth without any problems. Reasonable price and professional work, that's why I chose him. Definitely will recommend to my friends.

Blessed Olutade

18:15 22 Oct 19

A big Thanks to Mr Matthew Jeffery and his team for helping me appeal my wife's spousal sponsorship that was denied by visa office in Accra. The case against my wife was very complicated, It almost felt impossible. But today I can celebrate because through him and his team I won the case before IAD. I am now expecting my wife and son to join me in Canada anytime soon.

Ty P

16:21 24 Oct 19

I worked with Matthew Jeffery to help me with my citizenship application. They were an absolute pleasure to deal with, and provided guidance and support throughout the process that was invaluable. Their knowledge of everything required, understanding of my situation, and detailed explanation throughout, made this a very positive experience for me. I would highly recommend Matthew Jeffery, and special thanks to John Laman who was fantastic to work with during the entire process.

Randy Kamps

08:55 29 Oct 19

I have a refugee status in Canada, I received Removal Order that stated that I have to leave Canada in 30 days. I called Matthew Jeffery right away asking what to do. He took over my case, we’ve sent an Appeal letter and got scheduled a meeting at Assignment Court. Matthew went there with me and convinced the IDA to consider my appeal based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds which allowed me to stay in Canada and proceed with my PR application. I really appreciate everything Matthew done for me!

Sun Chen

23:56 23 Nov 19

I was referred to Matthew from friends who had successfully worked with him. He was direct and easy to work with from start to finish. I appreciated how upfront he was about the entire process, including requirements from me and the fee schedule as the process progressed. Mine was a very last minute application but he ensured we submitted on time, regardless. He also made the process much less stressful than it would have otherwise been and answered all my questions along the way. He was extremely professional to work with and I am so happy I chose Matthew, I highly recommend Matthew for the LMAI and PR application process. Thank you so much :-)

Omair Cheema

14:08 03 Dec 19

Mathew Jeffery Law Firm helped me obtaining the PR Card while I was working in the Middle East. I was referred to Mathew through a relative and I was very happy with the end to end process of migrating to Canada. The team was professional and satisfied, I would recommend to contact Mathew for immigration / legal related requirements.

Bonnie Davis

15:05 11 Dec 19

I used his law firm recently for an application for PR for my husband. John Laman assisted us. He was extremely efficient and very much upward managed the process for us. Answered all our questions and my husband received his PR very quickly. We appreciate all his support and we highly recommend him.

Alfredo Williams

17:00 12 Dec 19

I found the law firm of Matthew Jeffery online and due to the great reviews, I decided to use the firm for my rehabilitation case. I find Matthew Jeffery to be an outstanding immigration firm, with incredibly brilliant and superbly professional, knowledgeable, attentive and dedicated to my case. If you are looking for a great immigration lawyer…..please look no further Mr Jeffery and his team is truly amazing. They are always available via email or phone to answer all questions in detail. I had a rehabilitation case which took exactly the same amount of time he mentioned when he took my case. During the process and because of the technicality of my case and the perfect submission including all required documents, it was only one single document request from the immigration office of which I knew I had to submitted later which had been submitted timely by John from Mr Jeffery’s team of lawyers followed by a letter from the consulate a day later confirming my rehabilitation eligibility. I'm very glad to choose Matthew Jeffery as my lawyer and highly recommend them for anyone has a problem with his/her immigration process. Thank you Mr. Jeffrey, John, Justin and Lina for your hard work in this case.Right from the start Mr. Jeffery was encouraging and whilst no guarantees quickly mapped out the approach he proposed to take my case to nab the rehabilitation process. Mr. Jeffrey’s team managed the process the whole way through and was excellent in their support and help, answering emails to queries outside working hours and guiding me through the whole process. The multiply pages of statement and encyclopedia of evidence that was put together was extremely professional and the outcome was that I received the approval earlier this week. Even had the process not worked out in favor, Mr Jeffery and John already had contingency plans on how to manage that, again excellent risk mitigation and client management skills put into this process.I will not hesitate in recommending Matthew law firm to anyone needing an immigration lawyer. Literally could not have done this without you John.These guys are well worth the money and the peace of mind. I had a lot of people referring me to different immigration lawyers and I am so happy that I picked these guys. I would like to thank the firm especially John and prior Justin (Articling Student) for everything they did in helping me getting my case approved. These guys really did make the whole process easier then I would have thought and a lot less stressful. I would highly recommend Mr. Matthew Jeffery’s law firm for any Immigration matters and cannot waiting to start my spousal sponsor with them very soon.

Ahmad Salih

22:32 20 Jan 20

I have used Matthew's services for the renewal of my wife's PR card. I have nothing but great things to say about his office's services. Matthew's associates were very knowledgeable and professional. Neerja was able to build a solid case for my wife's application. A special thanks to Crystal who was also very professional and helpful. I strongly recommend Matthew Jeffery Law Firm for any Immigration-related services. Thank you all.

Lamoya Wright

20:46 04 Feb 20

John handled our case and he was extremely efficient. He provided timely updates and responded to all questions in a timely fashion as well. John has a good knowledge about Immigration laws and as such was able to guide us accordingly as our case wasnt exactly straightforward. He ensured that all required documents were submitted and that all forms were filled out correctly. Our process took less than a year and that is highly commendable. I would recommend John and the rest of the team at Matthew Jeffrey's law office in a heartbeat. Thanks again!

Roxana Iliuta

18:10 06 Feb 20

I used Matthew Jeffrey’s legal services for my husband’s appeal process and I am so glad I did! I wish I would have done this from the beginning of the sponsorship process but I’m happy I had the team on my side when it mattered. Absolutely professional, courteous and realistic (about options, upfront about costs and realistic total cost). They were by my side, advising me throughout my appeal process and hearing. Highly recommend!

Daniel Cruces

18:54 14 Feb 20

It's been amazing how Matthew and his team handled our case.Mr. John Laman assisted us promptly and professionally from beginning to end. Mr. John paid attention to detail and made sure that our application was richly prepared and correctly filled. Thanks to Mr. John, our family and our 2 daughters, will stay together in this wonderful country full of opportunities.We successfully obtained a PR; even though it was a challenging case.We are so happy we consulted Mr. Matthew Jeffrey and Mr. John Laman since they obtained a positive outcome, they are experts and extremely knowledgeable in their field.I recommend them immensely.

Tyrone Strangway

20:41 25 Feb 20

We reached out to Mr. Jeffery's firm a few years ago to inquire about common law sponsorship for permanent residency. At the time Mr. Jeffery answered all of our questions and we were quite happy with the service provided. My partner and I underestimating how difficult the process was decided to try making the application ourselves. After a few years of starting and stopping our work we finally decided to retain Mr. Jeffery's firm. We should have done so sooner, his firm, and our case worker John Laman, made the process incredibly efficient. There were many parts of the application my partner and I were not interpreting correctly. John made sure our application was complete and free of errors, and it was approved well within the twelve-month timeline the government of Canada suggests. Besides ensuring we had an error free application John provided a peace of mind during the process. He was able to quickly answer all our questions about the process, such as the viability of our travel plans during the holidays.For any future immigration work, such as the citizenship applications, we will retain the services of Mr. Jeffery firm and hope to work with John in the future.

Christopher Di Girolamo

00:16 05 Mar 20

My girlfriend and I had the pleasure of dealing with a young professional by the name of John Laman. The whole immigration process can be a very complicated one. I, for one, find the whole process a bit confusing at times because of all the rules and regulations BUT John was very helpful and thorough throughout the entire process. He explained everything in great detail and made the process pretty easy to handle and digest. John did a great job and was extremely efficient in handling this. Everything went faster than expected. John kept up a frequent and open line of communication where we experienced super fast communication and updates. Needless to say that this experience was better than expected of getting our PR card because of John's hard work and efficiency. I definitely felt comfortable the entire time knowing that our case was in good hands. For all future immigration dealings, I will be calling these guys. Thank you again, John! We both greatly appreciate everything you have done for us!

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