By CTV News | Link to Article
By CTV News | Link to Article
OTTAWA — Resolving to become a Canadian citizen in 2015? It’s going to be more expensive.
For the second time in a year, the Conservative government has hiked the fee it charges to make someone a citizen.
The new price for processing citizenship documents has been set at $530 as of Jan. 1, up from the formerly new price set last February of $300.
The government has been angling to increase citizenship fees for some time, arguing would-be citizens should cover more of the cost of processing their applications.
In an analysis of the new fees, the Citizenship and Immigration Department says the higher price will allow it to recoup almost all of the $555 in costs.
Put another way, the government says that’s an estimated $41 million it won’t have to spend.
In its analysis, the department said the fee jump may impose additional financial pressures on some people or families.
“While the analysis assumes that there will not be a reduction in overall demand for citizenship as a result of the fee increase, it is acknowledged that some may be required to delay their application as they will need more time to save for the new fee,” the analysis says.
“Overall, in the long term, this will likely not have a significant impact on the uptake for citizenship.”
When citizenship processing fees were first increased from $100 to $300 in February, it was the first time since 1995 there had been a raise.