Canadians Born Abroad Face Years-Long Delays for Citizenship Certificates
Canadians Born Abroad Face Years-Long Delays for Citizenship Certificates For families with children born outside Canada, obtaining a Canadian citizenship certificate has become an unexpectedly long and frustrating process. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is currently facing a major backlog of citizenship certificate applications, with processing times reaching 33 months. The delays are leaving some Canadian families separated from their children and forcing others to reconsider travel plans. A family separated by paperwork When Pascal Sud and Meisha Smith were preparing for the birth of their first child, they expected a short separation from Canada. Smith chose to give birth in Jamaica, where she had family nearby to support her. The plan was straightforward: she and their daughter, Sofianne, would return to Montreal a few months after the birth. At the time, applications for Canadian citizenship certificates were reportedly taking only four to six weeks. But the...