Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada is facing a rapidly growing inventory of citizenship-by-descent applications following last year’s expansion of eligibility under Bill C-3.
New figures published by IRCC on July 21 show that the department issued 28,940 proof-of-citizenship certificates between January 1 and May 31, 2026. Another 82,020 applications remained unfinalized at the end of May, leaving nearly three applications in the system for every certificate issued during the first five months of the year. The department cautions that “not yet finalized” describes its entire inventory and doesn’t necessarily mean every application has exceeded its expected processing time. IRCC
This is the first time IRCC has separately published finalization figures for proof-of-citizenship applications, providing a clearer picture of the workload created by the changes to citizenship law.
Bill C-3 took effect on December 15, 2025, after an Ontario Superior Court ruling found that the previous first-generation limit on citizenship by descent was unconstitutional in many cases. The former rule generally prevented someone born outside Canada from inheriting citizenship when their Canadian parent had also been born abroad.
The amended Citizenship Act restored or extended citizenship to many people born abroad before December 15, 2025, including some descendants of Canadians separated from citizenship by the old generational limit. People born abroad after that date face a substantial-connection requirement: their Canadian parent must generally have spent at least 1,095 days in Canada before the child’s birth. Government of Canada
The legal change opened eligibility to millions of people, many of them Americans with Canadian ancestry. Although those affected may already be citizens under the amended law, they still need a citizenship certificate to confirm their status and apply for a Canadian passport.
The rush of applications has pushed estimated processing times sharply higher. A proof-of-citizenship application took approximately nine months in November 2025. By July 2026, IRCC’s estimate had climbed to 19 months. A separate July 7 update indicated that the number of people awaiting a decision had already grown beyond the May inventory figure to approximately 99,500. CIC News
Citizenship grants for permanent residents are adding another layer of pressure. IRCC reported 326,365 grant applications awaiting finalization as of May 31, alongside the 82,020 proof applications. Together, the two citizenship streams contained more than 408,000 unresolved files.
Bill C-3 addressed a constitutional problem and restored citizenship rights that had been denied under the former law. IRCC now faces the administrative consequences of implementing that decision. If application volumes continue rising faster than the department can process them, the wait for proof of citizenship will keep growing—and so will pressure on Ottawa to explain how it intends to bring the system back under control.