Fee Payable for the Right to be a Citizen Remission Order: SI/2025-125
Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 159, Number 26
Registration
SI/2025-125 December 17, 2025
FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION ACT
Fee Payable for the Right to be a Citizen Remission Order
P.C. 2025-907 December 5, 2025
Her Excellency the Governor General in Council, considering that the collection of certain amounts is unreasonable, on the recommendation of the Treasury Board and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, under subsection 23(2.1)footnote a of the Financial Administration Actfootnote b, remits the excess from the adjustment, by operation of section 17footnote c of the Service Fees Actfootnote d, of the fee payable under section 32footnote e of the Citizenship Regulationsfootnote f during the period beginning on March 31, 2020 and ending on March 30, 2025.
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This note is not part of the Order.)
Proposal
The Governor in Council, considering that the collection of certain amounts of debt is unreasonable, on the recommendation of the Treasury Board and the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, pursuant to subsection 23(2.1) of the Financial Administration Act (FAA), has made the Fee Payable for the Right to be a Citizen Remission Order (the Remission Order).
Objective
The objective of the Remission Order is to remit outstanding debts resulting from the non-collection of annual increases to the right of citizenship fee from March 31, 2020, to March 30, 2025.
Background
Adult citizenship grant applicants under the Citizenship Act are required to pay a right of citizenship fee when making their application. The right of citizenship fee is set out in the Citizenship Regulations. The fee is subject to the Service Fees Act and is adjusted annually according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
From March 31, 2020, to March 30, 2025, the Service Fees Act required the right of citizenship fee to be adjusted annually in line with changes in the CPI. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (the Department) began charging the CPI adjusted amount as of March 31, 2025. Since the Department did not apply the CPI adjustment to the right of citizenship fee from March 31, 2020, to March 30, 2025, it resulted in foregone revenue of $9,074,409.42. These foregone revenues represent a debt to the Government of Canada.
Implications
The collection of the debt is considered unreasonable, as it would require small amounts to be recovered from nearly 1.2 million clients who are not aware of the debt, whose applications were finalized up to five years ago, and whose contact information may have changed. Locating these clients and recovering the funds ranging from $2.20 to $14.89 per client would create a significant administrative burden on the Department. It would also require administrative processes and client support materials to be developed, as well as information technology (IT) systems to be adjusted to support the collection.
| Fiscal year service provided | Uncollected fee increases | Volume | Foregone revenue — actual |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020–2021 | $2.20 | 26 233 | $57,712.60 |
| 2021–2022 | $4.24 | 204 448 | $867,677.31 |
| 2022–2023 | $4.04 | 299 106 | $1,207,045.85 |
| 2023–2024 | $7.57 | 324 386 | $2,456,484.16 |
| 2024–2025 | $14.89 | 301 289 | $4,485,489.50 |
| TOTAL | N/A | N/A | $9,074,409.42 |
The fee increase takes place on March 31 annually. Therefore, the volumes and fees reported above run from March 31 to March 30.
Accountability
All remissions associated with the Remission Order will be reported in the IRCC Fees Reports and IRCC Public Accounts.
Contact
Stephanie Jay-Tosh
Acting Senior Director
Citizenship Legislative Policy
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
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