As of Jan. 1, 2015 applying for citizenship rose to $530 per adult. Based on the government’s immigration projections for 2015, this fee hike could “inject an additional $60 million into federal coffers” .1
Despite relying on faster processing times for citizenship applications to justify changes to made to the Citizenship Act in 2014, the government has not fully explained the need to increase the application fees so drastically, and in particular why the negative impact on those who cannot afford to pay such a high application fee.
In fact, the rise in citizenship processing fees from $100 to $300 in February 2014 was the first time since 1995 there had been such a raise, and at that time, the government stated, “Increasing the service fees for grant and resumption applications to reflect 100 per cent cost recovery would have imposed too large a fee increase and too much hardship on applicants” .2
1 – Susana Mass, CBC Immigration News, “Immigration Changes to Watch for in 2015”, online:http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/immigration-changes-to-watch-for-in-2015-1.2828021
2 – Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press, “Feds hike Canadian citizenship fees, again”, online:http://www.mykawartha.com/news-story/5238592-feds-hike-canadian-citizenship-fees-again/
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Arghavan Gerami
Arghavan Gerami is the Founder and Senior Counsel at Gerami Law Professional Corporation ('PC'), a full-service immigration law firm in Ottawa, Ontario. Since 2011, Ms. Gerami has focused her practice on immigration and refugee litigation. Prior to that, Ms. Gerami worked at the Ministry of Attorney General and the Department of Justice and had the privilege of serving the Honourable Mr. Justice M. Evans at the Federal Court of Appeal on immigration and administrative law appeals. Ms. Gerami contributes to the Immigration Law Section of the Canadian Bar Association, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Ms. Gerami has also published numerous journal articles and presented at various immigration and refugee law conferences and events across Canada.