New data shows how IRCC handled urgent proof of citizenship requests in Bill C-3’s first eight months
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) received roughly 6,726 proof of citizenship applications requesting urgent processing in the first eight months after Bill C-3 took effect.
That’s according to internal IRCC data CIC News obtained through an Access to Information request. The data covers December 15, 2025, to August 14, 2026.
Part of this data hasn’t been released before. IRCC has not published figures more recent than June 30, 2026.
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A proof of citizenship application asks IRCC for a Canadian citizenship certificate. This is the category absorbing most of the demand created by the expanded citizenship by descent rules. However, it also includes other situations, such as if a Canadian citizen who was previously issued a citizenship certificate lost theirs and needed to replace it.
Bill C-3 changed the Citizenship Act on December 15, 2025. It removed the first-generation limit, a rule that stopped Canadians born abroad from passing on citizenship to children also born abroad.
Urgent processing is IRCC’s route for applicants who need their certificate sooner than the regular wait. As of October 9, a new proof of citizenship application takes 34 months to process, with about 130,700 people waiting for a decision. Urgent processing can cut that time down to weeks.
5 things we can learn from new data supplied
1. Almost every urgent file processed in that time frame was approved
IRCC processed 5,845 files that requested urgent processing between December 15, 2025, and August 14, 2026. It approved 5,804 of them, or 99.3%.
IRCC refused only 17 urgent files in eight months. It never refused more than five in a single month.
Applicants withdrew 23, and one was abandoned.
2. IRCC processed an average of 730 urgent proof of citizenship files a month
IRCC processed 5,845 urgent files over the eight months. That works out to about 730 files a month.
Output was highest in February and March. It then eased through the spring.
| Month processed | Approved | Refused | Abandoned | Withdrawn | Total processed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| December 2025 (Dec 15 to 31) | 213 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 213 |
| January 2026 | 800 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 815 |
| February 2026 | 964 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 970 |
| March 2026 | 954 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 960 |
| April 2026 | 844 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 848 |
| May 2026 | 716 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 717 |
| June 2026 | 317 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 319 |
| July 2026 | 646 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 649 |
| August 2026 (Aug 1 to 14) | 350 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 354 |
| Total | 5,804 | 17 | 1 | 23 | 5,845 |
Source: IRCC data released to CIC News under the Access to Information Act. Totals calculated by CIC News. IRCC left some cells blank, shown here as 0.
3. How many finalized applications were urgently processed
IRCC’s public data (not part of this ATIP request) shows it finalized 34,400 proof of citizenship applications between January 1 and July 31, 2026.
The new data shows IRCC processed 5,278 urgent files over those same seven months. That suggests urgent files made up about 15% of all proof of citizenship files IRCC finalized.
It’s worth keeping in mind that this is an estimate, as the two figures come from different IRCC sources.
4. Requests for urgent processing peaked in March
Urgent requests climbed quickly after the law changed. IRCC received 220 in the last two weeks of December 2025. By March 2026, the monthly total had reached 1,362.
That was the busiest month in the data. Requests then fell month after month.
There seems to be no correlation between requests for urgent processing and the IRCC processing time estimate, which was listed as 10 months in March and has been increasing since, reaching 25 months in August.
| Month received | Urgent applications |
|---|---|
| December 2025 (Dec 15 to 31) | 220 |
| January 2026 | 572 |
| February 2026 | 739 |
| March 2026 | 1,362 |
| April 2026 | 1,167 |
| May 2026 | 845 |
| June 2026 | 812 |
| July 2026 | 686 |
| August 2026 (Aug 1 to 14) | 323 |
| Total | 6,726 |
Source: IRCC data released to CIC News under the Access to Information Act. Total calculated by CIC News.
IRCC cautions that there’s a lag between when it receives an application and when the file enters its system. Because of this, totals for the most recent months may be lower than the number of applications IRCC actually received.
5. Approvals dropped by more than half in June
IRCC approved only 317 urgent files in June. That was down from 716 in May.
This lines up with IRCC’s review of citizenship certificates. On June 13, IRCC asked some recent certificate holders to hand their certificates back. Days later, it paused finalizing some new proof of citizenship applications.
The review ended on June 30.
Urgent approvals recovered somewhat since, reaching 646 in July, and 350 urgent files in just the first two weeks of August.
What the data does not show
The figures here only cover files IRCC has processed that have requested urgent or expedited processing.
The data doesn’t show how many urgency requests IRCC turned down. When IRCC decides a request doesn’t qualify for urgent processing, the application continues at the normal pace. It isn’t refused for that reason. So those files may not appear in this data at all.
Next, the data has no processing time. It doesn’t show how long IRCC took to process urgent files.
Who can ask for urgent processing
IRCC updated its urgent processing guidance for citizenship certificates on September 28, 2026. It may process a certificate faster if you need it to:
- Avoid harm or hardship tied to factors such as your race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or gender identity
- Move your child, who is under 18, to Canada, if they were born outside Canada and have a Canadian parent
- Resolve a case of statelessness
- Travel because of a death or serious illness in your family, when you can’t get a passport from your other country
- Give up a foreign citizenship by a set date
- Apply for a job, keep your current job, or attend a school, college, or university
- Access social benefits, such as a pension, health care, or a social insurance number
For a step-by-step guide, check out our explainer on how to request urgent processing of a Canadian citizenship certificate.
About this data
CIC News received this data from IRCC through an Access to Information request.
IRCC describes the data as operational and subject to change. All totals, monthly averages, and percentages in this article are CIC News calculations.
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