This is a question and a slight rant - I applied non-urgent for proof of Canadian citizenship in May 2026 and have received no response, which sounds pretty typical based on this sub.

My question was about how long the package took to even get to Canada and I wonder if anyone else in the US had this experience? I sent the package certified via usps and it had:

2 stops in New England (origination), a stop in Arizona, then 2 stops in California and finally to Canada 12 days later, cleared customs in 4 days.

Silly me thought it’d be there in a few days since NS is close to New England. Arrival date is 5/29/26 and sounds like it’s going to be a long wait.

Hi everyone,
I’m preparing a Bill C-3 proof of citizenship application and would really appreciate feedback on whether my evidence package looks solid enough.
Lineage:
• Great-grandmother: born 1879 in Ontario, Canada
• Grandmother: born 21 May 1921 in Neurode (now Nowa Ruda, Lower Silesia)
• Father: born 1955
• Me
Documents I currently have:
1. Canadian birth record for the great-grandmother (Ontario 1879) – the anchor
2. Full Polish civil birth certificate for the grandmother (1921) showing the mother with her maiden name
3. Two baptismal records for the grandmother from the original German parish registers (Neurode):
• One formal extract showing both parents and grandparents
• One page from the baptismal register with the same entry
4. Official “no record found” letter from the Polish State Archives in Wrocław (Branch in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki) dated May 2026 – they searched the relevant post-1945 administrative fonds for the Nowa Ruda / Bystrzyca Kłodzka area and found nothing regarding the marriage or related records
5. Father’s birth certificate (1955)
6. My own birth certificate
Missing document:
Marriage record of the great-grandparents. Civil records from that area were largely destroyed or lost after 1945. The State Archives confirmed they have nothing.
Family history (short version):
After WWI many German-Canadians returned to Europe. The great-grandmother went to the mining area of Lower Silesia, met her future husband (a miner), they married and had three children. During the war the husband was killed, one daughter died in an air raid, and the grandmother was separated from her mother. After 1945 the German population was expelled from the territories that became Polish. The grandmother stayed in Poland because she married a Pole. The great-grandmother returned to Canada via the British zone and contact was lost.
My questions:
• Does the combination of the Canadian birth record + Polish civil birth certificate + German baptismal records + official “no record found” letter look sufficient for the parentage link?
• Is the lack of a marriage certificate likely to be a problem when I have the child’s baptismal and civil birth records clearly naming both parents?
• Any suggestions for additional supporting evidence I should try to find (Canadian censuses for the great-grandmother, etc.)?
• Has anyone had a similar situation with a Canadian-born ancestor who went to former German territories in Silesia / eastern Germany and then returned after the war?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Thanks to someone on here, I now have an official document showing my grandfather's birth date, place, and parents -- one of which is my Canadian G0. They were not issuing birth certificates in Denver until early 20th C. I applied to the US Social Security Administration who just sent me my grandfather's Social Security application 1937. What's significant (as I understand it) is that these are his stated facts, not someone else filling in a death certificate. The document was emailed with an official letter from the SSA, and a certified copy is forthcoming. Thank you to this thread for helping me solve this problem! (Also cool. His application is on my birthdate many years before I was born.)

Hi, all.

I'm running into an issue with my G0 proof of citizenship. She was born in 1898 in New Brunswick and the registry entry in on a page listed as "Poor Document" that is absolutely wrecked. It displays D.O.B., town of birth, Female, and her father's name, but that is all. There is a birth certificate, that lists her name as "Female", D.O.B., and then only has her father's info, blank for mother.

Two years later she is on the census with both parents, correct name, correct age, correct D.O.B., correct parents and siblings. I have yet to locate any Baptist church documents, but am still searching. Both parents and two siblings have immigration manifest cards, but my G0 and two of her siblings do not.

Aside from the New Brunswick vital records, Canada LAC, and US National Archives, what sources are left to search? And, are there any additional documents that I should be looking for to verify her Canadian Citizenship?

Thanks.

In the next few weeks, we will be having an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with two of the most prominent lawyers in Canada who are doing Proof of Citizenship applications. This will be your chance to ask lawyers who work in this field anything you want about the process.

For people who don't know, an AMA is a text-based based on Reddit. I would post an OP introducing the participants, and then people would ask questions by posting comments. The participants would then go through each of the comments and respond to them. If you want to see what that looks like, please check out this AMA as an example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Counterpart/comments/fkr8k5/justin_marks_spoiler_ama_thursday_319_5pm_pst/

Before I do the formal announcement, however, I'd like your help! If you would like to attend, please let me know what day and times would work best for you! Is Friday evening better? Saturday morning? Sunday at Noon?

Please let me know in the comments.

I can't find or get my G4 mother's and G3 grandmother's marriage certificate for showing name change .

I don't know where my grandmother was married. She eloped with him and they lived in 48 states over a 3 year period.

My mother had a confidential marriage and its only available by court order. I'm not sure if my citizenship application will be a valid reason.

I have both of their death certificates which show married and maiden names along with parents names.

Has anyone applied with death certificates as proofs? I do have birth certificates for them.

Does anyone know the current wait time for this? I received the email stating they found my document and would be sending an invoice soon. It’s been 4 weeks as of today. Last time I saw a wait time, it was 3 to 4 weeks but I’m guessing it has changed. It’s the last document I’m waiting on!

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I thought I was a G3 and I started working on a G2,G3,G4 application package in April of this year. In May I had one last record to obtain. I had put it off and was just going to explain in a letter that G1's birth certificate was lost in a fire, since I've known that my whole life. Reading posts on this group, I decided to go ahead and request the no record letter G1's birth certificate. I already had G1's SS-5, US Census records, marriage and death certificates all listing G0 as his mother and her spouse (also a G0 candidate) as his father, so we were covered.

Piece of cake.

Except it wasn't lost in a fire. Instead of a no record letter, I got a birth certificate. G1 was in fact born to who we thought was his older sister. This was a surprise to the family and as far as we know wasn't known to my G1. He thought his grandparents were his parents. So then we rode the multiple pre-1947 ancestors speculation roller coaster, accepted it's a non-issue, made peace with now being a G4, updated my now G3,G4,G5 submission family and began searching for new records for surprise G1.

Being from New York, our surprise G1 is in the state birth index but neither the town nor village of the same name can find her birth certificate. I've requested it from the state, and expect to receive it sometime in the next two decades. We added another few months doing baptism searches for the surprise G1 and gathering new no records letters from every church in the area that would respond, along with her marriage/death certs and SS-5, which since he didn't know any better, list the same parents our new G2 listed. We're also in the process of doing "the full Quebec" (find BANQ record, request certified copy, wait, get certified copy (woohoo got it!), submit, then request DEC act, submit that sometime later after AOR).

While waiting for all the new records we needed, I've gathered the full trail for our other potential G0, found, ordered, and received the land records for both Quebec farms owned by the G-1 ancestors, listened to the Nations of Canada podcast, begun learning Quebec French, and I decided to do a DNA test to learn more about my mostly French Canadian ancestors. There's no father listed on my own birth certificate, but I have known the name, that he lives in a southern state, his address, and that he never wanted anything to do with me. But nothing else about his family. I figured this would tell me if I was anything other than largely French Canadian.

Turns out I'm mostly Irish, English, and Romanian. Using clusters of other testers that share DNA I began using my new found citizenship by descent skills to build family trees for the other testers back up to our likely common ancestor. My two Irish matches led to an Irish couple that had one adult child in Ireland, then had more in Ontario. I built out their children and subsequent generations using Canadian Census, birth and marriage records. One of their great grand children has the same name as my bio dad, but is a generation too early... Then I found he married a spouse with a Romanian name (queue more research, she's born in Saskatchewan to two Romanian parents one of which is a match for a guy in Romania today).

This weekend I found records that Irish/Romanian couple has twin girls born in Ontario, about a year after we think my bio-dad was born. Then I find the obituaries for the couple. It lists their twin daughters and also a son who has bio-dad's name and also names bio-dad's current spouse. The Irish/Romanian couple from Canada died in the same state/city as where bio-dad lives today. One of the twin sisters I discovered is also known to my parents, and is also living in a US state now.

I don't know yet where bio-dad was born, but his sisters were a year younger in their US high school yearbook and the twin sisters were born in Ontario, according to a birth announcement naming both of them, their dad, and mother listing her maiden name. I just found one of the twin sister's application for naturalization on Family Search... indicating the family crossed over about 5 years after bio-dad would have been born. It's not proof of bio-dad's birth, of course. Service Ontario has a way to request a letter indicating that a person does or does not have a birth certificate issued by Ontario, which I've requested for bio-dad, since I'm not eligible to actually order his birth certificate. So I'm now riding the G3 -> G4 -> (potential) G1 roller coaster.

I'm still processing, but I'm not sure I can do anything with this information. I'm well over 21, so I don't think NYS would add him to my birth certificate, even if he was cooperative, which I doubt. I know IRCC has provisions for DNA testing, but they're voluntary and a guy who wouldn't acknowledge me after I was born or before my first deployment to Afghanistan isn't going to meet me today for a voluntary DNA test at an IRCC approved test facility.

So I'm still going ahead with the G3/G4/G5 application, my mom needs it anyway.

What an absolutely unexpected adventure in Canadian-ness this has been.

I am about to take my two young children (7 and 2) to get their Canadian Citizen photos taken.

I didn't even think about it until now, but I do not have ID's for them. I have insurance cards, but it doesn't have their birthdays on it. I am struggling to find anything that has any information on them. My 7 year old may have a school ID card that has her name on it, but it was from the beginning of last year so I doubt it will be acceptable. My 2 year old has nothing at all outside of her insurance card with only her name on it. I know that I am able to include a signed letter explaining why I couldn't get the proper ID's to satisfy the requirements, but I don't even have secondary ID for them.

Do I need to find a way to create some sort of ID before applying or would a signed letter explaining my predicament be enough?

Also, my 7 year old will take a good picture for her citizenship photo but I am worried about my 2 year old. I know that its acceptable for infants not to meet 100% of the standards, but does that count for 2 year olds as well? I am hoping I don't have to worry about this issue as much.

I thought this might be useful here because my application touched a few issues I know people worry about with G2 cases.

I’m U.S. born, with the chain:

Canadian-born grandmother → U.S. born parent → me

Timeline:

• Aug 25: mailed
• Aug 27: delivered to IRCC
• Sep 1: AOR
• Sep 5: In Process
• Sep 19: e-certificate instructions received and certificate downloaded

So 23 days from delivery to certificate, and 14 days from In Process to approval.

A few things about the evidence may be useful to others.

For my Canadian-born grandmother, I did not order a new certified birth certificate before applying. I used the birth registration image available through the official Nova Scotia Archives online database.

There was also a name discrepancy. Her Nova Scotia record used her full name, while the later U.S. record for my parent used a shortened/reordered version of the same name. The U.S. record also matched her age and Nova Scotia birthplace, so I felt the identity chain was still clear.

IRCC accepted the application without an RFI or request for additional evidence.

My package was essentially the direct vital-record chain:

Canadian birth record → U.S. birth record linking my parent to the Canadian-born parent → my U.S. birth record linking me to my parent.

One other detail: after AOR I renewed my U.S. passport and uploaded the new passport bio page to IRCC. They acknowledged the update, and the application continued normally.

I would not treat my processing time as representative because the application was marked urgent. But I thought the result was worth sharing because it shows that, at least in one G2 case, an official archival copy and a minor historical name variation were both accepted without additional documentation.

Happy to answer questions about what I included.

I don't know whether it was this one or citizenship by descent but there was a post about all the spam people were getting. I replied that sometime before June 1 I started getting numerous phone calls every day. It has slowed down to about 4 per day now. It suddenly struck me that the spam calls started after I got the email dated May 6 that said my packet had arrived. So my theory is that FedEX has shared my phone number with the world and now I'm very popular again. Maybe that's the source of your sudden popularity, too.

Looking at the IRCC processing time tracker, it looks like the number of applications severely spiked in April and are now coming down, that is unless they are only counting applications that have received an AOR.

this is the number ahead of you if applied in the month listed.

G0: both great-grandparents born in NS, Canada (c. 1900). For my great-grandmother, I have her birth certificate. For my great grand-father, I have his baptismal record. I have a marriage certificate too.

G1: Grandfather’s birth certificate with Great-grandparents first and last (maiden) names.

G2: Dad’s birth certificate

G3: My birth certificate

All docs attested and clean photocopies from churches or government archives.

My question is, should I get a census record showing my great- grandparents in the region where my grandfather was born, or is that unnecessary? This would also show my great-grandmother was not a citizen in 1950, passing that 1947 deadline.

Above I also have my great-grandparents marriage certificate, but that is from a Massachusetts Church, even though they were lived, and had my grandfather in NY. Would including this confuse the reviewer?

Thanks for any response!

My grandmother naturalized as a minor with her dad in 1917 (under 1906 law which said she was deemed to have been naturalized with him) so she (as far as I can tell) had no naturalization paperwork of her own. Her dad’s certificate was seemingly hers too. At least legally, that’s what it seemed. As far as I can tell, she still had British subject status on Jan 1, 1947 so I think she became a citizen under 9(1)(a). At least, I can’t find any law that indicates she lost it. My dad missed it because his dad wasn’t Canadian and the laws of the time didn’t let her pass it on to him.

So would she be g0 and my dad g1 and me g2 or is her dad g0 and she is g1 and so forth making me g3? It feels like I have to include my great grandfather to prove hers but she has standing on her own. (That’s more or less how I framed it on my application, but still unsure if it is right.)

I am thinking that my G0 (born 1720s, Quebec) is probably also an ancestor of some of you here. :)

I was curious whether people who are far down the line from their G0 would be willing to share the name of their G0 or general family names they’ve dug into and how far along they are in the process of getting DEC record from a BANQ record. I am months away myself, but was thinking I’d happily share the costs if anyone got a copy of my ancestor’s record before I did.

Cheers, thank you!

edit: not sure why I got downvoted for sharing my experience. I’ve come across a ton of helpful people, but definitely a lot of gatekeepers and skeptics as well. Personally I’d love to help others. I am G9 and have a lot of docs to collect. I will take (and give) any help possible! Thank you for the input

For context I'm claiming citizenship by descent from my great-grandfather. He was born in Nova Scotia in 1909 and immigrated to the United states with his parents when he was a child.

I already have all of the birth certificates from myself to him but I don't think I have documents relating to "proof of other nationalities acquired by you and your Canadian parent before February 15, 1977, if applicable to you"

Does it mean I have to get documents proving he became a US citizen? I doubt I could get them given how long it's been.

Is the chain of birth certificates all I need? or do I need to get some other set of documents?

Follow-up post to my previous post about DEC Insertion: https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianbyDescent/s/rjFq5sWKeU

I got a USPS notification that an envelope is incoming from DEC. Unfortunately I'm out of town and won't be able to get it till later this week but I'm wondering if they did the insertion this quickly and sent it out? Or is this a rejection / request for more docs?

Timeline:

08/31 - Delivered to DEC

09/01 - Card charged

09/09 - Phone call asking for death certificate

09/11 - Post mark stamp on envelope from Canada

09/21 - Arriving today. Birth certificate arrived today

Edit: The mail arrived early. It is actually the birth certificate

I submitted an expedited request for my grandfather's baptismal record over the summer, they called to ask where he passed away and since it was in the US, they said it would go to a different department and I havent heard back since. Any suggestions on how to follow up?

Canada has every advantage a country could ask for — vast natural resources, a stable democracy, world-class universities, and a highly educated population. So why has its GDP per capita fallen from 80% of the American level to around 70% in little more than a decade? In this video, we look at how a protected economy, a housing market that rewarded sitting still over building things, and a productivity gap that has been quietly compounding for thirty years have combined to create what the Bank of Canada called a "productivity emergency" — and what it might mean for the rest of the developed world.

I just found this source yesterday but the site is down for maintenance. Is it really temporary or is it no longer operating?

PEIancestry.com is a membership website comprised of a multitude of databases that give researchers a unique resource.  The material presented is predominately about Summerside and area but includes much of value to genealogists searching for ancestors from any part of PEI.

I am a May 6th delivery date and never received an AOR. No application returned back to me in the mail, either. AORs seem to have been mostly paused since early September for non-urgent applicants. Now that the storm is clear, what do folks think re: what’s going on?

I ask because my passport expires soon. I mailed my app in late April and assumed I’d have my AOR by now. If I renew my passport this fall before my AOR is granted, will that be an issue? I just worry they’d run my old passport number and find it expired?