Bill C-3 opened the door. Now the line is getting longer.
Canada expanded citizenship by descent. The reported proof-of-citizenship queue has grown with it. That is a reason to begin carefully—not a reason to predict what the government will do next.
Check my Canadian pathFrom December 2025 to July 2026, the reported pending queue moved from 40,400 to 99,500. Over the same window, the estimated wait moved from 9 months to 19 months.
What Bill C-3 changed
The amended rules took effect on 15 December 2025. For some people born or adopted outside Canada before that date, the former first-generation limit no longer ends the analysis. Families that were previously stopped because a Canadian parent was also born or adopted abroad may now have a path that needs to be tested against the full family facts.
The practical proof step is a citizenship-certificate application. The certificate is the government document that confirms the result after IRCC reviews the person’s status and evidence.
Who the change may reach
The change is especially relevant to a person born or adopted abroad before 15 December 2025 whose Canadian parent was also born or adopted abroad. It does not make every person with a Canadian ancestor automatically eligible. The parent’s citizenship, timing, adoption facts, and the documented family chain still matter.
Future transmission follows a different question. When the current rules call for a substantial connection, the Canadian parent born or adopted abroad must be able to show at least 1,095cumulative days in Canada before the child’s birth or adoption.
The line doubled in seven months.
The pending application queue and IRCC's estimated wait both rose across the same reporting window.
Current as of July 2026
- Dec 202540,400 pending9 mo wait
- Jan 202645,000 pending9 mo wait
- Feb/Mar 202650,000 pending10 mo wait
- Apr 202656,000 pending10 mo wait
- May 202670,400 pending12 mo wait
- Jun 202682,000 pending16 mo wait
- Jul 202699,500 pending19 mo wait
What a longer queue means if you are starting now
A processing-time estimate is not a personal deadline or a promise. It is a planning signal. A family starting now should first confirm that the Canadian path fits, identify the Canadian ancestor, and map every parent-child link that will need official evidence.
A longer queue makes the work before submission more consequential. It is better to discover a missing civil record or unresolved name change while building the file than to treat the application form as the beginning of the research.