Newcomers struggle under long waits for citizenship
CBC
The first thing Fatima Zeba does every morning is check the status of her citizenship application.
She applied in 2019 and what was supposed to be a 12-month process, has now taken two-and-a-half years and counting.
"I just feel cheated," she said.
Zeba moved to Canada from India in 2011 to study in Halifax. Then she moved to New Brunswick in 2014 on a work permit. From there, she got her permanent residency.
She's an environmental engineer with a multinational company and said her life has been put on hold waiting for her citizenship.
She and her husband, Mohsin Rava, a doctor who wasn't able to find work in Canada, lived apart while she waited to get her citizenship and he took a residency in Florida.
While her application was still being processed, she joined her husband in the U.S. She's still a permanent resident of Canada but that will expire at the end of April.
"What really bothers me is if I don't come back my status will expire, my PR is going to expire, I'm going to lose everything that I've worked for," she said.
Zeba and her husband have a young son and they want to have more children, something they put off while living apart. For her, the decision to come back to Canada and reapply for her permanent residency is a difficult one.
"At this moment, it's between my citizenship and my family."
Zeba has had some movement on her application. She wrote the citizenship test in July 2021. She was told to expect a three to fourth month wait until she would be able to take the oath but she still hasn't heard when that will be.
"Our future is like in a limbo," she said.
She isn't alone.
On its website, Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada says the wait is approximately 12 months for citizenship, though many who applied in New Brunswick say they have been waiting several months longer than that.
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