Thousands of people around the world have received Canadian citizenship certificates as a result of a change late last year to federal law.
Half of them Americans, CBC News has learned.
In the first three months since the change, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) issued proof of citizenship certificates to 4,075 people under citizenship by descent provisions in Bill C-3.
The law allows people living in other countries who can trace their lineage from Canadian ancestors to qualify for Canadian citizenship even if their Canadian ancestor left Canada several generations back.
Prior to Bill C-3, Canadian citizenship by descent was limited to the first generation born or adopted outside Canada to a Canadian citizen. However, that limitation was struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.
The government says 1,955 applications approved between Dec. 15 and March 31 as a result of Bill C-3 were from people who were born in the United States. People born in Mexico came second with 900 successful applicants while people born in the United Kingdom were in third place with 140 people.
During the same period IRCC approved citizenship certificates for 13,310 people who qualified under the previous first-generation rules — including 6,135 born in the U.S., 945 born in Mexico and 720 born in the U.K.
Overall, during that period, people born in 44 countries received citizenship certificates as a result of Bill C-3 and people born in 118 countries received them under the previous criteria.
But that may just be the tip of the iceberg.
Public records specialists and immigration lawyers report a sharp increase this year in the number of people from outside Canada seeking help to locate documents like birth and marriage certificates for their ancestors or seeking advice on how to apply — and expected processing delays are growing.
For example, Quebec government spokesperson Catherine Poulin said Quebec’s Directeur de l’état civil has received 3,800 requests from people outside Canada since January for documents to establish Canadian ancestry.
Montreal immigration lawyer Lisa Middlemiss says her office has been so busy it hired two associates to handle the demand.
“I thought that it might be at the very entry into force that we would see the most interest from clients,” she said. “But in fact, as time continues, we are being contacted by more and more people with possible claims who might have an ancestor born in Quebec or born in Ontario.”
Middlemiss said a lot of the inquiries are prompted by the current political context in the U.S.
“The vast majority of our clients are American,” she said. “In some cases because they would like to have a backup in case, from their perspective, the situation becomes worse for them … in other cases because they perceive it as urgent.”
Middlemiss said some clients are seeking proof of citizenship because they have a child who is gay or trans. Others are concerned that U.S. President Donald Trump’s government could reimpose the draft and their child could be forced to join the U.S. Army.
A citizenship certificate allows you to do things like move to Canada or get a Canadian passport. However, Elections Canada says it doesn’t allow someone to vote in a Canadian election unless they have lived in Canada at some point in their life.
Estimates of just how many people could qualify for citizenship as result of the new rules vary widely.
Some point to a span of over 100 years in the 1800s and 1900s when hundreds of thousands of Canadians — particularly from Quebec — flowed over the border to jobs in the U.S.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer has estimated that 115,000 people could be affected by the change in the law.
“We anticipate volumes in the tens of thousands over time,” Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab told the House of Commons immigration committee in October. “We do not expect any surge.”
Diab said she also expects their fiscal impact to be limited.
“Some in this cohort are already here in Canada, contributing to general revenues, and those abroad are generally not eligible for most Canadian social programs,” she said.
IRCC spokesperson Matthew Krupovich said the new rules extend access to citizenship by descent but “having distant Canadian ancestry alone does not make someone automatically eligible.”
Krupovich said those born outside of Canada before Bill C-3 took effect have to show they have a parent or ancestor who was a Canadian citizen after Jan. 1, 1947. That is the date when the Canadian Citizenship Act went into effect and those living in Canada became Canadian, rather than British, citizens. In the case of Newfoundland and Labrador it is after April 1, 1949, when it became part of Canada.
Krupovich said IRCC hasn’t seen a significant increase in the volume of proof of citizenship applications since the law changed and has not assigned additional staff to process them.
At the same time, however, the number of applications waiting to be processed has grown to 70,400 from around 56,000 last month. The anticipated processing times for proof of citizenship applications listed on IRCC’s website has increased substantially from five months in May 2025 to 12 months for applications submitted now.
It can take even longer if there are problems with the documents submitted or the photos of the applicant don’t meet the IRCC’s criteria.
In addition to people applying for certificates to prove citizenship by descent, the backlog includes other categories of applicants such as people born in Canada who want a certificate or people applying for a replacement certificate.
Middlemiss finds IRCC’s claim that there hasn’t been a significant increase in applications difficult to believe.
“I’m not sure at what point IRCC has the resources at the moment to accommodate this type of demand,” she said.
Middlemiss said the change is so new that many of her clients haven’t yet received answers to their applications. But some have been able to have their applications handled on an urgent basis, such as those who have been accepted to study in Canada or who fear for their safety.
“It’s a very strange situation to have regular meetings with Americans who feel, have expressed their fear, as to what their country has become,” she said.
