What did Bill C-3 change for citizenship by descent?

This update is part of the Bill C-3 citizenship by descent hub, with the Citizenship guide. Bill C-3 amended the Citizenship Act on December 15, 2025, by removing the first generation limit that had stopped Canadians born abroad from passing citizenship to children also born abroad.

A proof of citizenship application is how you ask Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for a Canadian citizenship certificate. That category has taken much of the demand from the expanded rules. Urgent processing is IRCC’s path when you need a certificate sooner than the regular queue.

How did IRCC handle urgent proof of citizenship requests after the law changed?

From December 15, 2025 through August 14, 2026, IRCC received about 6,726 proof of citizenship applications with urgent processing requests, according to internal data CIC News obtained under Access to Information.

The department processed 5,845 urgent files in that window and approved 5,804, a 99.3 percent approval rate. It refused 17, recorded 23 withdrawals, and one abandoned file. Urgent requests peaked in March 2026 at 1,362 received in that month. Average processing output was about 730 urgent files per month.

In June 2026 IRCC approved only 317 urgent files, down from 716 in May, during a review of citizenship certificates that began June 13 and ended June 30. Approvals partially recovered in July and early August 2026. IRCC cautions that lag between receipt and when a file enters its system can make recent months look lower than applications actually received.

What do the regular queue figures mean if you are not using urgent processing?

As of October 9, the regular proof of citizenship queue stood at about 34 months with roughly 130,700 people awaiting a decision.

Between January 1 and July 31, 2026, IRCC finalized 34,400 proof of citizenship applications in public data. About 5,278 urgent files processed in those seven months suggest urgent work was roughly 15 percent of finalized proof of citizenship files in that period. Urgent processing can cut waits from years to weeks for applicants who qualify under IRCC rules.

When can you ask for urgent processing of a citizenship certificate?

IRCC updated urgent processing guidance for citizenship certificates on September 28, 2026.

Reasons listed in that guidance include hardship, moving a child under 18 to Canada, statelessness, family illness or death travel needs, foreign citizenship renunciation deadlines, employment or education, and access to social benefits. Proof of citizenship applications also cover cases such as replacing a lost certificate, not only descent claims under Bill C-3. The released operational data do not show how many urgency requests IRCC denied before processing, nor processing times for urgent files once accepted.