Archives overwhelmed after Canada opens up citizenship to millions of Americans

Archives across Canada are reporting a dramatic surge in requests, after a change in legislation granted citizenship to any American who can trace their lineage back to a Canadian ancestor.

The change eliminated Canada's first-generation limit to citizenship by descent, giving anyone born prior to December 15, 2025 with a Canadian ancestor the right to Canadian citizenship — regardless of how many generations back their Canadian connection goes.

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Millions of Americans became eligible, but cannot obtain Canadian passports without first applying for proof of Canadian citizenship certificates, which requires official copies of documents proving their Canadian ancestry.

Provincial archives across Canada, which contain the vital records needed for Americans to prove their Canadian ancestry, have been deluged with requests following the passing of the citizenship bill.

The national archives for the Canadian province of Quebec, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), has seen a 3,000% increase in requests.

The present day surge in request for the BAnQ stems from the Great Hemorrhage: the historical mass migration of French Canadians to New England between 1840 and 1930.

The Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island (PEI) have also been seeing a surge, stemming back to the 18th century displacement of a different French-speaking cultural group, the Acadians, the ancestors of present-day Cajuns. Having been forcibly expelled from what is now Eastern Canada by the British government starting in 1755, many Acadians ultimately settled in Louisiana in the years prior to the Louisiana Purchase.

As reported in March by CBC News, Canada's flagship government-funded independent newspaper, the Nova Scotia Archives has seen “10 times more requests in January and February than the same period last year.” By March, the archive had received 270 addition requests, raising its backlog to around 600.

From January to March of 2026, in fact, the Nova Scotia archives received more than five times the requests it had throughout the entire calendar year of 2024: 1,354, compared to 262.

As of the time of writing, the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick has a backlog of over 1,000 requests, with an additional 400 citizenship-related requests coming in each month, as reported by the CBC. Archivist Joanna Aiton Kerr reports that the surge of calls began in December and hasn’t slowed down since. As of the time of writing, the New Brunswick archives advise it may take six to eight weeks just to respond to an initial inquiry.

The Canadian province of Prince Edward Island’s Public Archives and Records Office has seen a 143 per cent increase in requests so far this year, according to the CBC. It has an automatic response to emails, stating that the volume of requests is so high that it cannot provide a timeline for when orders are completed.

As per time of writing, it looks like demand is far from abating.

Why are thousands of Americans applying for proof of Canadian citizenship now?

Americans have been applying in the thousands, and make up the vast majority of proof of Canadian citizenship applicants, at ten times more applications than from the U.K., the second-highest source country.

Many of these applicants have no immediate intention of leaving the U.S. They are simply applying to get Canadian passports as a back-up plan.

Since both countries permit dual citizenship, Americans have realized that obtaining Canadian citizenship by descent comes with no downsides, only upsides.

Canada does not impose a worldwide tax on its citizens, unlike the United States. U.S.-Canadian dual citizens do not become subject to any additional tax obligations by obtaining their proof of Canadian citizenship certificate or Canadian passport.

Being recognized by both governments, U.S.-Canadian dual citizens enjoy the full rights and privileges afforded to citizens of each country, including the rights to enter, live, or work in Canada at will, as well as access to the Canadian passport, which currently ranks higher than the U.S. passport on the Henley Passport Index.

Unsure if you are eligible for Canadian citizenship by descent? You can always visit CanadaVisa's citizenship by descent calculator.

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