Immigration department blames ‘unclear’ guidance for citizenship document recalls

OTTAWA — The immigration department says unclear department guidance on how to apply for citizenship-by-descent may have led to people being issued proofs of citizenship without sufficient evidence.

The department now says 100 people were told to surrender their citizenship certificates after a “routine review” found documents issued under Bill C-3 had “potentially insufficient supporting documentation.”

The department issued this explanation, and confirmation of the number of people who were told to turn over their citizenship certificates, a full 17 days after the initial emails demanding the surrender of citizenship certificates were sent out.

The department now says that it has restored proof of citizenship for 33 people who received those emails, while reviews of another 67 cases should be completed in a matter of days.

The department says a review of roughly 6,500 other citizenship-by-descent certificates issued under C-3 is now complete.

When C-3 became law last year, it allowed anyone born before Dec. 15, 2025 to claim Canadian citizenship as long as they had a provable link to a Canadian ancestor.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2026.

David Baxter, The Canadian Press