Canadians born abroad captured up in yearslong citizenship certificate processing hold-ups

When Pascal Sud and Meisha Smith prepared in January for the arrival of their very first kid, the option appeared easy.

Smith would deliver in her home nation of Jamaica where she had household assistance, and after that they would together go back to Montreal 3 months later on.

At the time, the wait time for the citizenship certificate that their child, Sofianne, required to fly back to Canada was in between 4 and 6 weeks.

More than 8 months later on, they’re still waiting.

Sud is back at work in Montreal while Smith and Sofianne are still in Jamaica.

“It’s been very frustrating,” stated Sud. “I was lucky to be there for three months … but I’ve been missing every step since, and it’s been very difficult to be apart from them.”

He’s not alone.

Migration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is having a hard time to deal with a flood of citizenship applications– much of them from a modification to federal law late in 2015 that enables anybody who can show they have a Canadian forefather to use.

That stockpile is avoiding Canadians born abroad like Sofianne from getting home.

Canadian citizenship certificate applications now dealing with almost 3-year hold-ups

According to the department’s latest upgrade on Sept. 3, there are 136,000 applications waiting to be processed. Those making an application for a citizenship certificate now deal with a wait of 33 months.

At that rate, Sofianne might be more than 3 years of ages before she can get in Canada.

Confronted with this hold-up, Sud requested a visitor’s visa for Sofianne to take a trip to Canada on her Jamaican passport. IRCC declined the application– stating she was Canadian and should take a trip to Canada on a Canadian passport.

Sud gets annoyed when he checks out in online forums about those who are attempting to get citizenship through Bill C-3– the modification to migration law for those referred to as the “Lost Canadians.”

Much of the posts are from individuals residing in nations like the United States, attempting to trace their Canadian origins to look for citizenship certificates.

“They’re not people who are living in Canada and a lot of them, they’re not even planning to live in Canada,” stated Sud. “There is no different process if you’re a Canadian living in Canada.”

In between Dec. 15 and July 31, 6,810 individuals, over half of them Americans, have actually gotten Canadian citizenship certificates under Bill C-3. Another 20,515 have actually acquired the certificates under the pre-existing arrangements to acknowledge those born abroad to Canadian moms and dads.

Canadian citizenship certificates permit holders to look for a Canadian passport and live and operate in Canada.

Christine Beltempo is a migration legal representative with McCarthy Tétrault and chair of the Canadian Bar Association’s migration area.

“We have known since the first drafts of Bill C-3 that this would cause a lot of uptake in the number of applications,” she stated. “That’s become a reality at this point in time. What we are a bit concerned about, though, is the exponential increase in processing times.”

Taous Ait, representative for Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab, stated the present processing time is the outcome of a boost in applications for citizenship certificates– however not all of the applications are the outcome of Bill C-3.

“We recognize that long processing times can be challenging for applicants, and we are focused on ensuring citizenship certificate applications are processed as efficiently as possible while protecting the integrity of Canada’s citizenship program,” she composed in a declaration.

“IRCC is actively responding to increased demand by training and onboarding additional staff, improving intake processes and strengthening workload management.”

Modification in Canada’s citizenship law striking U.S. archives

Need for Canadian citizenship certificates skyrocketing, sustained by Americans

Conservative migration critic Michelle Rempel Garner stated Prime Minister Mark Carney’s federal government overlooked cautions when Parliament embraced Bill C-3. She stated rather of getting migration concerns under control, it has actually developed a “dumpster fire.”

“There are a lot of people who have a reasonable expectation, a very reasonable expectation, for timely service delivery in the documentation that the federal government has a duty to provide to them,” she stated.

“What the federal government did last fall was put in place a piece of legislation in spite of warnings from many stakeholders, as well as the Opposition party, gutted safeguards that could have prevented this mess and charged ahead anyways.”

The Calgary MP stated the stockpile is impacting numerous in Alberta, where current modifications to provincial guidelines to restore chauffeur’s licenses and health cards consist of arrangements to validate citizenship.

A citizenship certificate can act as evidence for those without a passport.

“It’s certainly something that I’m hearing in my caucus,” she stated. “The onus really is on the immigration minister to clear this backlog that we told her was going to happen.”

NDP migration critic Jenny Kwan contacted the federal government to bring back staffing and resources that were cut at IRCC, calling the processing hold-ups “simply unreasonable and unacceptable.”

Robert Woodrich’s household is likewise captured in the stockpile.

Woodrich was born and raised in Windsor, Ont., however has actually lived beyond Canada for a number of years– initially in Thailand, where his child and kid were born, and now in Switzerland where his household has ancestral roots. In February 2025, he requested a citizenship certificate for his three-year-old child, Michelle, and later on his kid, so they might visit their grandpa and other household in Canada.

Michelle has a Swiss passport however, likewise to Sud, Woodrich has actually been informed that his child is expected to take a trip to Canada on a Canadian passport.

They are set up to go to household later on today. Almost 600 days after he used, he still does not have her citizenship certificate and may not understand till the day before the Oct. 7 flight whether Canada will approve an unique permission for her to take a trip on her Swiss passport.

“These children are Canadian. They were Canadian the day they were born,” stated Woodrich. “I just need these certificates to get the passport so they can go to Canada where they are citizens.”

Migration attorney Colin Singer stated that given that Michelle has actually not yet gotten a Canadian citizenship certificate, she is not yet lawfully a Canadian resident, so she must have the ability to take a trip without problem to Canada with her Swiss passport.

Kathy Borrelli, Conservative MP for the riding of Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, has actually been assisting Woodrich and 4 other households captured in the stockpile.

“Robert’s children are entitled to Canadian citizenship and I think it’s outrageous that they should have to wait 33 months to get the documentation that they need to enter Canada in order to see their grandparents and their extended family,” Borrelli stated.

Borrelli stated the federal government needs to have been much better gotten ready for the volume of demands in the wake of Bill C-3.

“They should have anticipated that the floodgates are open now and that they would get hundreds of thousands of applications,” she stated. “So, we’re suffering from the bad decisions on the government’s part and it’s just not fair.”