The Canadian auditor-general has highlighted serious flaws in the process of acquiring Canadian citizenship, suggesting that immigration authorities routinely failed to adequately detect and prevent fraud. The audit examined more than 100,000 adult citizenship applications submitted during the period July 2014 and October 2015, under the former Conservative government.

Key Failures of Immigration Department:

  • Failed to adequately detect and prevent fraud in the Citizenship Program.
  • Did not have a systematic method of identifying and documenting fraud risks.
  • Important controls designed to help citizenship officers identify and act on fraud risks were not consistently applied.
  • Not reliably receiving from its partners—the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canada Border Services Agency—important information on criminal charges of applicants.

The Auditor General, Michael Ferguson, says the stringent checks that are meant to be taking place are being overlooked with citizenship being granted to ineligible applicants.

Verifying that applications are not fraudulent is a key activity when assessing eligibility for citizenship. The impact of fraud in the Citizenship Program is that some individuals receive citizenship and its associated benefits without being entitled to them. Once citizenship has been granted, revoking it—if fraud is discovered later—is time-consuming and costly. The Department reported that in January 2016, it had about 700 revocation cases pending.

The three most common reasons for revoking citizenship are fraud related to residency, identity, or undeclared criminal proceedings. Residency fraud involves pretending to live in Canada to maintain permanent resident status and meet residency requirements for citizenship. In 2012, the Department issued a public warning that nearly 11,000 individuals had been linked to residency fraud investigations.

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The content of this article reflects the personal insight of Attorney Colin Singer and needs no disclaimer