Canada eliminates some of the restrictions related to foreigners who want to become Canadian citizens, writes CNBC News.
Canadian Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Ahmed Hussen announced on Wednesday the new rules for obtaining citizenship will come into force by 11th October.
Under the new rules, physical presence in Canada for those who file for citizenship will decrease from four to three years, for which they have to file a tax return.
Also, those who had a temporary residence before obtaining permanent residence permit may take into account that one year of temporary residence.
Thus, those who have less than 3 years of permanent residence may apply for citizenship if they previously had a temporary residence for one year.
At the same time, the 183-day period in which residents were required to be present in Canada was abolished.
“One of the strongest pillars of immigration in Canada is getting citizenship to become part of the Canadian family.
The government encourages all immigrants to apply for citizenship in order to benefit from all the advantages of becoming Canadian citizens”, said Ahmed Hussen.
According to CNBC News, the number of Canadian citizenship applications dropped significantly after the government raised their taxes three years ago.
During the first nine months of 2016, there were 56.446 applications, a drop of almost half from 112.000 applications received in the previous year.
The citizenship tax increased in 2014 to 530 dollars.