Memo shows citizenship targets for 2022 and makes recommendations on processing applications. IRCC memo that outlines targets for the number of new citizens Canada will welcome for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. The memo, drafted by the Operations, Planning and Performance division of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for a senior official, recommends that IRCC process a total of 285,000 decisions and 300,000 new citizens by March 31, 2023. A decision is a review of an application which is then approved, denied, or marked as incomplete. The citizenship target means that 300,000 approved applicants must take the oath of citizenship, either in person or virtually.

1. IRCC aims to grant citizenship
to 300,000 people this fiscal
year

2. Memo shows citizenship
targets for 2022 and
makes recommendations
on processing
applications.
IRCC memo that outlines
targets for the number of
new citizens Canada will
welcome for the 2022-
2023 fiscal year.

3.  The memo, drafted by the Operations, Planning and
Performance division of Immigration, Refugees and
Citizenship Canada (IRCC) for a senior official,
recommends that IRCC process a total of 285,000
decisions and 300,000 new citizens by March 31,
2023. A decision is a review of an application which
is then approved, denied, or marked as incomplete.
The citizenship target means that 300,000 approved
applicants must take the oath of citizenship, either in
person or virtually.

4.  This is a significant increase over the 2021-2022
fiscal year and even exceeds the pre-pandemic
targets of 2019-2020, when 253,000 citizenship
applications were processed.
 In 2021-2022, IRCC succeeded in welcoming
217,000 new citizens. So far in the 2022-2023 fiscal
year, Canada has welcomed 116,000 new citizens
and is well on track to hit target. By comparison,
over the same period in 2021, Canada had only
sworn in 35,000 people.

5. IRCC moving away from paper
applications
 In March 2020, IRCC became unable to process most
applications due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was because the department was only able to
process paper applications that were mailed to a central
location. As all in-person events were also cancelled, this
meant that IRCC was unable to conduct interviews with
candidates and there could not be any oath swearing at
citizenship ceremonies.
 These constraints led a shift towards making the
citizenship application process entirely digital, for some
applicants, beginning in November 2020. This has
expanded to all those who apply who are over the age of
18.

6.  The memo recommends that IRCC continue with its
current system of first-in-first-out for all applications,
meaning maintaining focus on older, paper applications
while also making room to prioritize a small number of
digital applications to prevent backlog growth.
 In 2021, IRCC had a goal of 5,000 digital applications for
the fiscal year out of a targeted 245,000 decisions. As a
larger number of applications are now digital, the report
says that for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, there will need to
be an increase in the number of digital applications
processed.

7. Processing times over 20 months
 Processing times in a subsequent report published in
May stood at 27 months. The memo says this is to be
expected due to increased online applications in addition
to the backlog of paper applications. As of last June,
there were 413,000 applications in the grant inventory.
 IRCC says it has taken steps towards clearing the
backlog, and processing 80% of all new applications
within service standards. To do this, over 1,000 new staff
have been hired and there are plans to expand access to
the citizenship application status tracker to
representatives. Additionally, minors under the age of 18
will be eligible to apply for citizenship online by the end
of the year.

8. THANK YOU