Thousands sought Canadian citizenship. Some are now under review

Key Points:

• Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is reviewing some citizenship certificates recently issued under Bill C-3, a law that expanded Canadian citizenship by descent, requesting recipients to surrender their certificates pending verification of their documentation.
• The reviews focus on whether applicants provided sufficient official proof of an unbroken lineage to a Canadian ancestor, with concerns raised about reliance on non-official sources like genealogy websites or archival records instead of government-issued documents.
• IRCC emphasizes that having Canadian ancestry does not guarantee citizenship and applicants will have the opportunity to submit additional evidence before a final decision is made; if eligibility is confirmed, certificates will be returned.
• The move has caused distress for some new citizens who had already planned life changes based on their citizenship status, and immigration lawyers note that suspending issued certificates on a large scale is unusual.
• The government states these reviews are case-specific and not related to recent citizenship reforms, while demand for citizenship by descent continues to grow, with over 12,000 applications received shortly after Bill C-3 came into effect.