Date: October 5, 2026
Reporter: Emilly Jordan
Canadians living abroad and families with children born outside the country are facing lengthy delays in obtaining proof of Canadian citizenship, with the federal backlog now reaching about 136,000 applications and the posted processing time approaching three years.
The growing backlog at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has left some Canadian families separated from their children for months because Canadian citizens born abroad generally need proof of citizenship to obtain a Canadian passport and return to Canada. According to the latest IRCC figures, applicants for a citizenship certificate are now facing an estimated 33-month processing time.
The problem has become particularly visible following the implementation of Bill C-3, legislation that changed Canada's citizenship-by-descent rules in December 2025. The law addressed the long-standing issue of so-called “Lost Canadians” by expanding access to citizenship for people who can establish an eligible connection through Canadian ancestry.
Under the previous rules, the first-generation limit prevented many people born abroad from automatically passing Canadian citizenship to children who were also born outside Canada. Bill C-3 removed that restriction for eligible cases and established a new framework for future generations based on a Canadian parent's substantial connection to the country.
The change has generated a substantial increase in applications. IRCC data shows that the proof-of-citizenship queue increased from about 40,400 applications in December 2025 to 136,000 by September 2026. During the same period, the posted processing time rose from nine months to 33 months.
The backlog is affecting people who have longstanding Canadian family connections as well as individuals seeking recognition under the expanded rules.
One family highlighted in the CBC report is that of Pascal Sud and Meisha Smith. When their daughter Sofianne was born in Jamaica earlier this year, her parents expected to return to Montreal after several months. At the time, the estimated processing time for her citizenship certificate was only several weeks.
More than eight months later, however, Smith and the baby remained in Jamaica while Sud had returned to work in Montreal. The family has been separated while waiting for the documentation needed for their daughter to obtain a Canadian passport.
The family says the delay has been particularly difficult because the child is entitled to Canadian citizenship through her Canadian parent. The situation illustrates how a documentation backlog can have consequences even for families whose underlying citizenship entitlement is not in dispute.
Other families are experiencing similar problems. Robert Woodrich told CBC that his daughter Michelle, who has a Swiss passport, had been waiting nearly 600 days for her Canadian citizenship certificate. The family was preparing to travel to Canada to visit relatives but remained uncertain whether she would receive the documentation needed to travel as a Canadian citizen.
The delays have also created frustration among immigration lawyers and advocates who say the increase in applications should have been anticipated.
Christine Beltempo, an immigration lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault and chair of the Canadian Bar Association's immigration section, said the scale of the increase has become a concern, particularly because of the exponential growth in processing times.
The federal government had previously expected the impact of Bill C-3 to be much smaller. Before the legislation came into force, IRCC said it expected tens of thousands of people, rather than hundreds of thousands, to be affected. The department also said it was prepared to process applications through its existing dedicated citizenship team.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer had estimated that approximately 115,000 people could be affected by the legislative changes beginning in 2025 and 2026, although the government emphasized that the estimate was uncertain.
The actual number of applications now waiting has surpassed that earlier estimate.
The surge has also attracted significant interest from the United States. Reuters reported earlier this year that Americans represented nearly half of the additional approvals for proof of citizenship by descent in the first months after the expanded rules came into effect. Monthly approvals increased from 275 in December 2025 to more than 1,000 per month in early 2026.
For some applicants, Canadian citizenship provides an additional option for themselves or their families even when they have no immediate plans to move to Canada. That has added pressure to a system that must also process applications from Canadians born abroad who need documentation for immediate travel or other practical purposes.
The distinction has become a source of frustration for families already living in Canada or trying to return to the country with children born overseas.
Sud told CBC that he has seen online discussions involving people outside Canada seeking citizenship through Canadian ancestry, while his own family remains separated because of the processing delay.
The government maintains that the citizenship system is intended to protect the integrity and value of Canadian citizenship. Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab's department has previously emphasized that applicants claiming citizenship through a Canadian ancestor must establish the complete chain of parent-child relationships connecting them to the Canadian citizen.
The department has also said that citizenship obtained under Bill C-3 does not automatically mean that a person will qualify for every government benefit. Federal and provincial programs have their own eligibility requirements, which can include residency, income, age and tax-related conditions.
IRCC has faced additional complications since the law took effect. In June, the department temporarily paused assessment of some new C-3 applications while it reviewed a number of previously issued citizenship certificates after documentation concerns were identified. Government briefing material said officials were working to validate the affected cases and resume normal processing.
The department has said the review was largely resolved and that most affected certificates were restored, although the episode added another layer of uncertainty to an already pressured system.
For families waiting for citizenship certificates, the central issue is not necessarily whether they are Canadian but whether they can obtain the official documentation required to prove that status.
A citizenship certificate is generally needed before a person can apply for a Canadian passport when citizenship was acquired by descent and the person does not already have acceptable Canadian citizenship documentation.
The consequences can therefore extend beyond paperwork. Families may face cancelled travel plans, prolonged separation, additional immigration expenses and uncertainty about when children born abroad will be able to join their Canadian parents in Canada.
The federal government now faces pressure to address the backlog while continuing to apply the expanded citizenship rules established by Parliament.
With approximately 136,000 applications awaiting decisions and processing times reaching 33 months, the scale of the problem has moved well beyond the government's earlier expectation of a relatively limited increase in applications.
For Canadians abroad and families with children born overseas, the growing backlog has transformed what should ordinarily be a documentation process into a lengthy wait that can affect where families live, whether they can travel and when children can reunite with relatives in Canada.
As IRCC works through the growing queue, families and immigration professionals will be watching closely for measures that can reduce processing times while ensuring that applications are assessed consistently under Canada's revised citizenship law.