Canada’s citizenship rule change that took effect Dec. 15 has driven a rush of Americans exploring whether they can qualify for dual Canadian citizenship based on family heritage, according to immigration lawyers and applicants in the United States and Canada.
For Zack Loud of Farmington, Minnesota, the idea was a surprise: he said he and his siblings were considered Canadian because their grandmother is Canadian under the new law, which prompted him and his wife to move Canada higher on a list of possible job and life options outside the United States.
Immigration lawyers say the operational impact has been immediate. Nicholas Berning, an immigration attorney in Bellingham, Washington, said his practice has been “pretty much flooded” by requests related to citizenship applications. Amandeep Hayer, who practices in the Vancouver, British Columbia area, said the volume of citizenship cases dropped in scale and then rose again quickly, with consultations increasing from about 200 per year to more than 20 consultations per day after the change took effect.
The legal shift is rooted in how Canada defines eligibility for citizenship by descent. Under the approach that applied before Dec. 15, Canadian citizenship by descent could be passed only to one generation, from parent to child. Under the new rule, people born before the Dec. 15 start date can qualify if they can prove they have a direct Canadian ancestor, including a grandparent, great-grandparent or an even more distant ancestor. People born on or after Dec. 15, by contrast, must show that their Canadian parent lived in Canada for 1,095 days.
Even with the change, Canada’s process still depends on documentation. Descendants of Canadians are considered citizens under the law but must provide proof to obtain a certificate of citizenship, Hayer said in describing the certificate application as recognition of a right he said applicants already have.
In the United States, lawyers and applicants tied their interest to a mix of factors. Some said the timing of the policy change aligned with political and practical considerations, including concerns over U.S. immigration enforcement. A Massachusetts resident, Michelle Cunha, said she decided to move to Canada after decades of political activism left her feeling “nothing left to give,” and Troy Hicks, of Pahrump, Nevada, said a trip abroad prompted him to look for documents that would be “easier” and more “palatable,” citing a Canadian passport as a reason to apply.
Others described the change as a contingency plan. Maureen Sullivan, of Naples, Florida, said her interest was motivated by an immigration crackdown in Minnesota that reached her family when her teenage nephew encountered federal officers near his high school in St. Paul. Sullivan, whose grandmother was Canadian, said she wanted a Canadian citizenship option in case things in the U.S. “really go south,” and she described the decision as part of a broader sense of family security planning.
Applications also raise questions about cost and timelines. For applicants with documentation already assembled, Canada’s citizenship application fee is 75 Canadian dollars (about $55). Hayer and others said costs can climb substantially for applicants who need help from attorneys or genealogists to locate records such as birth, death and marriage certificates that establish lineage. Cunha estimated her own cost at about $6,500 after using an attorney, while Mary Mangan, of Somerville, Massachusetts, said she filed her application in January after getting advice from online forums and argued that many people could complete the process without a lawyer.
Canada’s federal immigration department, which processes the applications, said processing times for a certificate are around 10 months and that more than 56,000 people were awaiting a decision. The agency also said that from Dec. 15 to Jan. 31 it confirmed citizenship by descent for 1,480 people, though not all were Americans, and it said that last year, 24,500 Americans gained dual U.S.-Canada citizenship.
The reaction inside Canada is mixed, with some welcoming the interest and others worried about administrative strain. Fen Hampson, a professor of international affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa, said Canadians are generally a “welcoming people,” but also noted concern that a surge of Americans seeking certificates could delay refugee and asylum efforts. Hampson said some people object to applicants who they believe have “thin ties” to Canada and are seeking a passport as a matter of convenience.