Citizenship and Immigration committee  In actual fact, not very many applicants take advantage of the ability to use non-permanent resident time. Now it's less than 15% of applicants overall.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  There wouldn't be an exception to the requirement for four years of physical presence under the bill. That is a requirement under the bill; however, it would be four years of physical presence out of a six-year window. Those who have to travel quite a bit for their work or for family reasons would have the flexibility to use the full two years out of the six-year window however they choose over that six-year period for times that they may need to be away.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  It will depend on the individual circumstances. As I mentioned, people can be away for a full two years and that period of time can be staggered at any time over the six-year window. The time the individual is in Canada counts towards the physical presence requirement, and the time the person is away doesn't count.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Under the new processing model, we're going from a three-step to a one-step decision-making process, where in the vast majority of cases, the minister or a delegated citizenship officer would decide on the vast majority of citizenship grant applications. However, there would be a minority of cases where citizenship judges would continue to decide.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Possibly. That's one of the options we're considering as we work out the implementation.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  The minister and the government make their decisions based on the advice provided by the department and based on other considerations the government may want to take into account in those cases, but I could not comment any further on this issue.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Actually, under the bill, the minister could grant citizenship only in exceptional circumstances and according to the prescribed criteria. As the minister mentioned, two criteria must be satisfied in order to grant citizenship in exceptional circumstances: the individual must have provided services of an exceptional value to Canada or suffered exceptional hardship.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes, but it is up to the individual to establish the specific circumstances that apply in their case.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Indeed, the decision is discretionary.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  That's an important question that we are giving serious consideration as we prepare for the possible passage of the bill. Regardless, as the minister mentioned earlier, certain patterns have emerged through the project undertaken by the Historica-Dominion Institute. The institute administered the test to 57,000 students from grade 7 to grade 12, and the majority passed the test.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  I would add this to my answer. As mentioned earlier, the current system gives people who failed the test the first time a second chance to write it, and at least half of them pass the second time around. I think the scenario you are describing would be extremely rare.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Exactly.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  A person who is subject to a decision by the Federal Court, an individual whose citizenship is being revoked on the grounds of being a member of a foreign armed force that is engaged with the Canadian Forces in armed combat, if the Federal Court makes a decision to revoke citizenship on that basis, such a person would be barred permanently from applying for Canadian citizenship on the basis of the seriousness of the circumstances that gave rise to the revocation in the first instance.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Yes.

Citizenship and Immigration committee  Under the bill, our decision-making system will change from a three-step to a single-step process during which the minister or the citizenship officers designated by the minister will make decisions on the vast majority of citizenship applications. The only exception will be cases where an officer cannot approve a citizenship application because they are unsure whether the applicant meets the residency criteria.