Canadians born abroad are waiting years — not months — for the citizenship certificates that prove their legal status, CBC News reports, as processing backlogs at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) stretch on with no firm end date.

The citizenship certificate (formerly the citizenship card) is the standard document Canadians born outside the country use to prove citizenship, whether for a passport application, a job, or entry at the border. Without it, Canadians by descent cannot complete the most routine administrative steps, even though the law recognizes them as citizens.

Who is affected?

The delays hit two groups hardest:

• Canadians born abroad to a Canadian parent, who must apply for a certificate to obtain proof of status rather than receiving automatic documentation at birth;
• Applicants' families, who report being unable to secure passports, sponsor relatives, or complete schooling and employment requirements while the file sits in the queue.

Affected individuals quoted by CBC describe waits stretching across multiple years, with no reliable timeline from the department at any point in the process.

What does the delay change in practice?

A Canadian parent can register a child born overseas, but the child still needs the paper certificate to act as a citizen in daily life. When processing runs to years rather than the published service standard, the practical consequences compound:

• Passport applications stall, because a certificate is required supporting evidence;
• Proof-of-status requests from employers, schools and government agencies go unanswered;
• Families face repeated, often uninformative, responses when they seek case updates.

IRCC has not announced a programmatic change that resolves the wait. The situation is a capacity problem inside the existing system, not a new eligibility rule — meaning applicants cannot "fix" the delay by filing differently.

What can applicants do?

The standard levers available in any delayed immigration or citizenship matter apply here:

• Confirm the application was complete at filing, since incomplete files lose their place effectively;
• Use official IRCC channels for case status and, where warranted, request urgent processing tied to a concrete hardship;
• Watch for program-level announcements from IRCC, which is the authoritative source for any change in processing commitments or service standards.

Applicants with time-sensitive needs should check current posted guidance directly with IRCC rather than relying on third-party estimates, as quoted timelines have not held in practice.

Why it matters

Citizenship by descent is a fixed legal entitlement for those who qualify, yet the certificate backlog converts a right into a waiting-room experience. For a global audience, the case is a reminder that proof-of-citizenship documents — not merely status itself — determine real-world mobility, and that document processing capacity can become the operative constraint on nationals' ability to travel and work.

Anyone in this situation should rely on IRCC's official communications for the current state of processing times and options, as the figures cited by affected Canadians describe individual experiences rather than an announced departmental standard.