本周四（2月25日），联邦移民部长麦家廉（John McCallum）正式向众议院递交了C-24法案的修订案。该修订案对C-24 法案进行了多项修订，其中包括废除联邦政府撤销部分犯罪人士加拿大国籍的权力，缩短成为公民所需的居留时间，以及放宽了需达到语言要求的申请人年龄限制。

议案的要领如下：

(a)  去除因为国家安全原因可以剥夺加拿大公民身份的条款，

(a) remove the grounds for the revocation of Canadian citizenship that relate to national security;

(b) 去除要求申请人成为加拿大公民后，要求继续居住在加拿大的条款，

(b) remove the requirement that an applicant intend, if granted citizenship, to continue to reside in Canada;

(c) 减少要求一个人成为公民之前要求实际居住在加拿大的时间，并且让申请人在成为永久居民之前的实际居住时间能够被计算进来。

(c) reduce the number of days during which a person must have been physically present in Canada before applying for citizenship and provide that, in the calculation of the length of physical presence, the number of days during which the person was physically present in Canada before becoming a permanent resident may be taken into account;

(d) 让需要参加语言水平才能入籍的年龄段缩小到了18到54岁

(d) limit the requirement to demonstrate knowledge of Canada and of one of its official languages to applicants between the ages of 18 and 54;

(e) 授权移民部长可以没收任何有理由相信是虚假或不当获得，或者有可能作为冒充或不当用途的文件。

(e) authorize the Minister to seize any document that he or she has reasonable grounds to believe was fraudulently or improperly obtained or used or could be fraudulently or improperly used.

我们来看看他将要实际对公民法生效的具体细节。

(2) Subparagraph 5(1)‍(c)‍(i) of the Act is replaced by the following:

(i) been physically present in Canada for at least 1,095 days during the five years immediately before the date of his or her application, and

也就是居住在加拿大的时间会被改为5年之内住满3年，这个比之前的4年内住满3年要更为宽松。

(4) Subparagraph 5(1)‍(c)‍(iii) of the Act is replaced by the following:

(iii) met any applicable requirement under the Income Tax Act to file a return of income in respect of three taxation years that are fully or partially within the five years immediately before the date of his or her application;

报税的条款没有改变，要求申请人在申请入籍之前的5个财年内报税3年。

Length of physical presence — calculation

(1.‍001) For the purpose of subparagraph (1)‍(c)‍(i), the length of physical presence is calculated in the following manner:

(a) for every day during which the person was physically present in Canada as a temporary resident or protected person under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act before becoming a permanent resident, the person accumulates half of a day of physical presence, up to a maximum of 365 days; 

成为永久居民之前的合法居住时间可以折半计算，最多可以折算一年。

7 Subsection 11(1) of the Act is amended by striking out “and” at the end of paragraph (d), by adding “and” at the end of paragraph (c) and by repealing paragraph (e).

要求有成为公民之后继续居住在加拿大的意图的条款被直接去除。

我们看到这个议案非常给力，由于现在自由党在议会有多数议席，估计不会怎

么大改就能够通过成为法律。一些论坛上已经有人开始筹划推迟入籍时间（这样在入籍的时候就不要求签署打算继续居住在加拿大的同意书了），不过就算再快，等这个议案正式生效成为法律估计至少还有一年，但这已经是广大正在坐移民监的申请人们的福音了。

麦家廉称，这些变化将有利于排除移民路上的困难，帮助新移民在加拿大建立起新的生活。

C-24法案还没有推出，就引起了民间的强烈反对。加拿大律师公会（CBA）曾在一份报告中写道：“居住意愿产生的第一个问题在于，该条款将所有公民区分成两种，一种出生即有公民身分的加拿大人，另一种即是在国外出生，后来经过移民归化方式，才取得公民的加拿大人。在加拿大出生的人，可以不受限制居住在任何国家或地区，也可以去任何地方旅游，但非在加拿大出生的公民，如果离开加拿大，即有丧失国籍的风险。”

虽然争议声很大，但是前保守党政府还是倚仗国会内的多数席位，强行通过了这项法案。

在去年联邦大选期间，小杜的一项重要竞选承诺就是取消C-24法案，并得到了很多选民的支持。