Canada is now offering citizenship tests online after the pandemic forced testing to cease in March.
Eight months after all citizenship tests were dropped, Canada is now making the test available online.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is evaluating the new platform over the next few months. During this time, online citizenship tests will first be presented to those whose tests were dropped because of the pandemic and the individuals who are on the waiting list.
IRCC will invite more citizenship candidates to utilize the platform after performance monitoring shows it works accurately. More individuals will probably be invited to give the test in the new year, CBC reports.
Test-takers will need to affirm their identity by personal information, and take a picture of themselves and their ID documents with a webcam before the test starts.
Citizenship candidates will have 21 days to finish the test, during a time that is easy for them. The system will take photographs of members during the test, which is a process that has been utilized to oversee other tests that have shifted online during the pandemic, for example, bar exams, and law school admissions tests.
As per a media release, IRCC had been working on modernizing the citizenship program before. Online testing was a part of this activity.
What will the test format be like?
Much like the in-person tests, online tests will be 20 questions and members will require 30 minutes to finish them.
IRCC said that individuals don’t have to contact the department, those invited to give the test online, or their agent, will be informed by email.
There is also the option to wait to take the test face to face, however no date has been set yet for restarting this process.
85,000 or more people waiting for citizenship test
As per IRCC information, as of September 7, around 85,000 individuals were waiting to give the citizenship test.
The backlog in citizenship applications was the impetus for the team Advocates for Resumption of Canadian Citizenship Tests, who held showings in Toronto and Montreal in the beginning of November. Among one of the team’s calls to actions was the restart of citizenship tests.
In a giving statement to CIC News, the team called the online testing initiative “a step in the correct direction” yet question whether or nor it will be adequate to address the necessities of tens of thousands of candidates in a timely manner.
As a component of the Citizenship Act, all citizenship candidates between ages 18 to 54 have to show knowledge on Canada in order to become citizens. Preceding 1994, this process was done by interview, which is still the case for candidates over age 55.
Canadian citizenship gives migrants the option to vote and gain a passport. It also gives numerous individuals a sense of belonging, and security.
