Canadian citizenship certificate applications face 33-month wait, backlog hits 136,000

Applicants filing for Canadian citizenship certificates today could wait until mid-2029 for decisions, as Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) faces a backlog of more than 136,000 applications and processing times of 33 months.

The delays have accelerated sharply since Bill C-3 took effect on December 15. In May 2025—before the law—processing times were five months. The current 33-month estimate represents a 32% increase since an August 10 update, and the application queue has grown by 11% in the same period. Less than nine months have elapsed since Bill C-3 came into force.

Bill C-3 expanded citizenship by descent eligibility dramatically. Prior to the law, Canadian citizenship by descent was limited to first-generation people born or adopted outside Canada to a Canadian citizen parent. The new law allows people living in other countries who can trace lineage from Canadian ancestors to qualify for citizenship even if a Canadian ancestor left Canada several generations back. Many of the 136,000 pending applications are from Americans.

Christine Beltempo, president of the Canadian Bar Association's immigration section, said Calgary that the surge was predictable. "We have known since the first drafts of Bill C-3 that this would cause a lot of uptake in the number of applications for proof of citizenship," Beltempo said. She expects application volume to increase further next year and called for IRCC to assign more staff to process files. "I think it would be nice to see the department devoting more resources to this business line so that processing times can go back to what I would consider to be normal standards for people who are presumably Canadians."

IRCC says processing times vary and the 33-month estimate reflects increased volume and complexity. Applications often require substantial documentary evidence and additional verification. "The department is continuing to monitor application trends and volumes and is implementing operational measures to respond to increased demand, including triaging applications, enhancing intake processes, training and onboarding additional staff and refining workload management practices," IRCC spokesperson Briannah Dale said.

The backlog has swollen as Canada's archives face requests for documents proving lineage to Canadian ancestors, sometimes going back seven or eight generations. In October 2025, Sean Diab told a parliamentary committee that IRCC anticipated volumes "in the tens of thousands over time" with "no surge." The actual results have far exceeded that projection.