One ground, and a court as the default
Revocation is narrower than its reputation and better protected than most people assume. There is a single ground, and the Federal Court decides unless you choose otherwise.
Sixty days, and what you put in them matters
The notice you receive sets out the grounds and the material relied on, and it starts a sixty day period, running from the day the notice was sent, in which to make written representations. That period is extendable for special reasons, and the Minister must consider what you file.
Those representations are also where personal circumstances, the best interests of any child directly affected, and the risk of statelessness are raised. They are not a formality, because the Minister must refer the matter to the Court unless satisfied there was no fraud or that special relief is warranted.
If you ask the Minister to decide, the challenge window is thirty days
Where you ask the Minister to decide rather than letting the matter go to the Federal Court, the only recourse against the outcome is judicial review, and it needs leave of the Court. The application must be filed in the Registry and served on the other party within thirty days after the day you are notified of the matter or otherwise become aware of it. That period is half the length of the representation window and it is easy to lose while waiting to see what happens next.
Appeal rights are narrow too. An appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal from a judgment under section 10.1 or 10.5 lies only where the judge, in rendering judgment, certifies that a serious question of general importance is involved and states the question.
- The only ground is fraud. False representation, fraud, or knowingly concealing material circumstances, in obtaining, retaining, renouncing or resuming citizenship. It reaches a case where permanent residence was obtained by fraud and citizenship followed.
- Revocation does not usually leave you a foreign national. Where the fraud was in the citizenship process only, you revert to permanent resident status and the department's position is that revocation in that situation does not remove your right to remain in Canada. You become a foreign national only where the ground is that permanent residence itself was obtained by false representation.
- The national security grounds were repealed in 2017. Citizenship cannot be revoked for a terrorism or treason conviction, whatever you may read. That repeal did not touch the prohibitions on a grant, so the same facts can still bar a permanent resident from being granted citizenship, and some of those bars have no time limit.
- The Federal Court decides by default. The Minister must bring an action and obtain a declaration, unless you ask the Minister to decide instead.
- A request for information usually comes first, with thirty days. Before the formal notice that starts the sixty day period.
- Judicial review is the recourse from a Ministerial decision, with thirty days and leave. Filed and served within thirty days of being notified or becoming aware, and only with leave of the Court. An appeal onward needs a certified serious question of general importance.
- A revocation carries a ten year bar on a fresh grant, and closes resumption for good. A person subject to a revocation decision or declaration cannot resume citizenship at all, with no time limit, so the route back is permanent residence and then a grant once the ten years have run. Renunciation applications are also not accepted while proceedings are under way.
- The most serious cases can end in a deportation order made by the Court. Where an inadmissibility declaration is sought in the same action, that declaration is itself a deportation order in force when made, with no admissibility hearing and no appeal from an interlocutory judgment.