Over 136,000 Await Canadian Citizenship Certificates Amid Processing Backlog

More than 136,000 people are now waiting for Canada to process applications for proof of citizenship, with estimated wait times exceeding 33 months following changes to the country's citizenship-by-descent rules, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data.

The backlog has grown by about 14,000 applications since August, while the estimated processing time has risen from 25 months to more than 33 months. Applicants outside Canada and the US could face another three to four months of waiting, according to the IRCC estimate.

The surge follows the introduction of Bill C-3 in December 2025, which removed the first-generation limit on citizenship by descent. The changes allow Canadians born abroad to pass citizenship to children also born outside Canada, subject to new requirements. The legislation also opened a route for people born before December 15, 2025, to establish citizenship if they can demonstrate a direct connection to a Canadian citizen and provide documents verifying how citizenship was passed down.

More than 6,100 people had received proof of citizenship under the amended rules as of August, IRCC data provided to CTVNews showed. As of May 31, people born in the US accounted for 51% of approved applications under the new eligibility criteria.

Immigration lawyer Kyle Hyndman, who previously chaired the Canadian Bar Association's National Immigration Law Section, told CTVNews that the volume of applications was “staggering” and beyond the department's ability to process within a reasonable timeframe. Hyndman said interest from the US has been driven partly by political developments and increased attention to Canada's citizenship rules. “Both what’s happening in the US politically, and also news coverage of the Canadian citizenship situation in the US,have both spurred a lot of interest,” he said. “That’s certainly part of the surge, and that’s put all kinds of pressure on every stage in this process,” he added.

Hyndman said the unit responsible for proof-of-citizenship applications traditionally handled a smaller volume and had not been expanded sufficiently to cope with the increase. “Now we’re hearing that they are staffing up, but it seems to me that’s happening almost a year too late,” he said. “Many of these problems could have been prevented if they’d heeded the warnings earlier on and really prepared for that.”

Christine Beltempo, chair of the Canadian Bar Association's National Immigration Law Section and a lawyer at McCarthy Tétrault, said the increase is not limited to applicants in the US. She told the outlet that she has also seen applications from countries including Mexico. “You’re creating additional bureaucracy for some people who actually are presumably, according to the new law, Canadian citizens,” Beltempo said, referring to applicants who may need documentation before they can exercise their rights in Canada.

Outside the US, IRCC data showed Mexico, Bolivia, the United Kingdom and its territories, China, India, France, Australia and Italy among the countries with the highest numbers of approved applications under the new criteria.

Beltempo described the rise in applications and processing times as “a predictable uptake” following the legislative change, but said it has left applicants struggling to make plans. “What we’re seeing is disappointment, frustration, mixed emotions and certainly people finding it very difficult to plan their lives and their futures in Canada, without having a predictable amount of time before which they can actually get their documentation,” she added. She also noted that the citizenship changes followed a court ruling that found the previous citizenship-by-descent rules unconstitutional. The first-generation limit had restricted citizenship by descent to people born or adopted outside Canada to a Canadian citizen. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down the restriction in a 2023 ruling.

An IRCC spokesperson told CTVNews that factors beyond Bill C-3 were also contributing to the increase in applications. “Complex cases often require substantial documentary evidence and additional verification, which can extend timelines,” the spokesperson said. “The current estimate should be understood in that context, rather than as a direct comparison with historical figures that were calculated using different inventories or methodologies.”