Canada relaxes requirements for attaining citizenship, to be effective from next week

The new rules will be effective from next Wednesday.

One of the significant changes which the federal government has brought, as mentioned in an official statement by Immigration Canada, will be the term of physical presence.

As per the new rule, any citizenship seeker in Canada will now have to stay at least three out of five years in the country.

Earlier, the requirement for physical presence was four out of six years.

As per the new Bill C-6, any person above 55 years of age will not require to pass the language and knowledge test to attain citizenship. Earlier, the age range was 14-64.

In another liberal reform, Canada will certainly provide one year credit to the international students, refugees and foreign workers for the time they spent in Canada before attaining citizenship as they are towards the residency requirements for citizenship.

However, the fees to apply for the citizenship have been kept unaltered. The fees for the applicants for an adult and below 18 years have been kept at $630 and $100.

In an interview, Immigration minister Ahmed Hussen, told the Star: "Citizenship is the last step in immigrant integration. Those unnecessary obstacles put in place by the previous government are hurting us as a country."

"We are proud of these changes and are excited about it" the minister added.

According to the government data, as accessed by the Star, the number of applicants were 108,635 in the last year that ended in March while the average application number touched 200,000 a year.

The Bill C-6 has been amended and received the Royal assent in July.

The amendment in the bill empowered Ottawa to strip citizenship from naturalised citizens for the crimes which have been committed after attaining citizenship.

(Reporting by Souvik Ghosh)