PENTICTON — Martyn Lewis has been dreaming of becoming a Canadian citizen ever since he moved to the country six years ago. Finally, at Tuesday’s citizenship ceremony, that dream has come true. Lewis came to Canada from the U.K. in 2010 under the Federal Skilled Worker Program because he holds a pharmacy license.
The Penticton man believes this day almost didn’t come because of a mistake made during his permanent residency application.
“There are average times released online of how long an application should take, usually it is one year, but it had already been two so that’s when I knew,” says Lewis.
Despite countless calls to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), he never got a hold of an agent.
He eventually stumbled onto a direct line to the High Commission of Canada in London, England and finally received an answer via email.
A representative told him that “as a result of a coding error, it was not brought into active process.”
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In other words, a clerical error caused Lewis’ application to be grouped with the applicants who were applying for permanent residency from outside of Canada, when he made the application while he was already in the country.
Lewis believes his application would’ve eventually been cancelled and he would’ve had to return back to England.
Tahira Sayeed with the South Okanagan Immigration and Community Services group says this situation is rare.
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“I have never heard of having a mistake with coding, that is something I’ve never come across,” says Saeed.
Lewis is now warning others to be diligent.
“Once you’ve applied there’s no way of knowing where you stand, and I’ve heard too many stories from close friends of mine where they’ve experienced difficulties even worse than mine.”
Sayeed says changes to immigration laws made last year means the process should be faster.
“A permanent resident if they are applying for citizenship might have to wait up to 13 months because of the backlogs. Now the backlogs have gone down drastically,” she explains.
She says permanent residents get invited to a citizenship ceremony as quickly as seven months.
Despite the mistake made during Lewis’ permanent residency application, he says there’s no other country he’d rather live in.
“Don’t send me back to the U.K.,” he says with a chuckle.
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