No OP said " Under the new law, my husband meets the residency requirements to apply for Canadian citizenship. However, the forms from CIC site have not been updated." which means under new law her husband meets requirement not Old
References to "new law" and "old law" are ambiguous. The Bill C-24 changes took effect only a little over two years ago after what has often been referred to as the "old law" had governed citizenship requirements for nearly four decades. Hundreds of references to the "new law" in this forum refer to the Bill C-24 4/6 requirements.
References to "residency requirements" only apply to the 3/4 rule under what has, likewise, been referred to hundreds of times here as the "old law," to applications made prior to June 11, 2015. Current law and the changes expected to take effect this fall impose a
presence requirement,
not a
residency requirement.
Nonetheless, the OP's query is probably in reference to meeting the presence requirements under the Bill C-6 changes, the legislation which received Royal Assent just this past June but which will not take effect until sometime later, presumably but not necessarily sometime this year (again, all IRCC has said about this is that the changes are "expected" to take effect this "fall"). This is the 3/5 rule which I also addressed in my earlier post above.
However, since the OP referred to meeting the requirements in the present tense, and to a "residency" requirement, to be clear a response based on the current law was warranted.
It is easy to guess that the OP is aware that Bill C-6 was adopted and is law, but was not aware that the presence requirement changes are not yet in effect. It is thus easy to assume the OP's query is about the Bill C-6 requirements.
BUT this and other forums are rife with definitive advice based on similar assumptions, and while that works for most queries it can be blatantly and sometimes dangerously wrong for some.
Among the more notorious and damaging examples of commonly given bad advice is that many queries about needing a passport to apply for citizenship were affirmatively answered (not just in this forum but apparently by more than a few call centre representatives as well), "yes" the applicant should have and submit a copy of the biographical pages of a valid passport when making a citizenship application, and the checklist calls for this. Unfortunately this was really bad advice for anyone who was a refugee or protected person, for whom just obtaining a home country passport establishes a presumption of reavailment, and that is grounds for cessation of refugee or protected person status, which since 2012
automatically terminates PR status and renders the individual ineligible for citizenship, subject to deportation, no matter how long they have lived in Canada, no H&C relief available. That is, many times advice was given in this forum which, if followed, could have led to the loss of status in Canada altogether (and recent media reports indicate there are at least 393 individuals who applied for citizenship but whose application is now suspended pending cessation proceedings pursuant to which they will be denied citizenship and lose their PR status).
That is far from the only example.
Not every query in the forum demands the more careful, expansive response taking into consideration lurking pitfalls, tricky nuances, and latent vagaries in highly variable individual circumstances. Even if the query entails ambiguities. Some do, however, and particularly if the discussion is one which is more likely to be read for information by the much larger pool of those who read these topics without participating, among whom many are looking for information which will help them better navigate their own cases.
When the law changes, particularly when there are substantial changes, and especially when there are multiple changes within relatively short periods of time, the potential for confusion, misunderstanding, and outright error is much higher. Bill C-6 introduces a major change to the requirements for grant citizenship and does so in less than three years since the previous major changes implemented pursuant to Harper's Bill C-24 . . . compared to no more than minimal substantive changes in the grant citizenship requirements for adults for the previous three-plus decades. An elevated degree of caution and care is called for in addressing queries about these requirements during the transition period.
