e-550 (Immigration)

Petition to the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship

• The Canadian government had effectively enforced language proficiency requirements to all citizenship applicants between the ages of 18-54 since 2012 through the amendments to Section 14 of Citizenship Regulations, and subsequently extended it to the ages of 18-65 since the effective date of Bill C-24 in 2015;
• Citizenship applicants must pass knowledge tests about Canada (the bar of pass mark is set high at 15 correct answers out of 20 questions), and also oral examinations with citizenship officers in either one of two official languages before they can take oaths of citizenship. Requiring applicants to provide evidences of language proficiency is an duplicated effort;
• Government-funded language-training classes are already overloaded to accommodate new immigrants with language training needs, plus those only attend solely for language requirements for citizenship; and
• Some classes of immigrants are not assessed against language proficiency when they first come. Most are still employable and integrate without the needs to prove upfront language-proficiency. It does not make sense the government will ask them to prove their motivations to speak English or French from a language requirement for citizenship. If the person need to upgrade his employability through language skills, it should be at his own-will.