Americans Seeking Canadian Citizenship Wait as 1,690 Certificates Move Ahead
Jolie Roetter and her father, Joseph John Roetter, have been waiting a year for their Canadian citizenship-by-descent applications even as some later applicants move ahead, leaving americans seeking canadian citizenship under the interim process watching certificates go to others first. The Washington, D.C., applicant said the delay has turned a family claim into a test of patience.
Jolie Roetter said the wait feels personal because her father is 80 years old, was born in the United States, and has long treated Canada as part of his life. “My dad was raised as a Canadian and has always identified as a Canadian,” Roetter said. She added, “He has gone back and forth so much for his whole life that for a long time it really didn’t matter whether he had a citizenship certificate. It wasn’t until COVID that it mattered, when we couldn’t see our family in Canada.”
Ontario court order
The Roetters submitted their application last May under an interim measure sanctioned by the court after Ottawa was ordered by an Ontario court to change the law and restore citizenship to Lost Canadians and people affected by the previous two-generation cut-off rule. Roetter said the family learned of that process through the court-driven changes, and the application included birth certificates.
Bill C-3 passed on Dec. 15, ending the interim measure. Officials said the remaining files were moved to the regular queue and handled first-in, first-out. The Immigration Department said it had received 8,200 applications under the interim measure as of Dec. 14, approved about 1,690 individuals, and recorded no refusals.
Social media applicants
Roetter said people she met in social media groups who applied after the new law took effect were receiving citizenship certificates while her own file remained pending. “It’s definitely frustrating,” Roetter said. “When I submitted an application with birth certificates, I feel it should be fairly straightforward but it just continues to sit there. And I think that’s where some transparency from Canadian immigration would be really helpful. It’s just this big mystery where other things are speeding through.”
Joseph John Roetter’s own ties to Canada run through his father, whose paternal grandfather was born in Rainham Township in Ontario in 1909. That grandfather worked in Buffalo and kept residences on both sides of the border, while Joseph John Roetter still visits cousins in Fort Erie and Haldimand County, Ont., monthly and celebrates Canada Day with relatives.
Regular queue processing
The practical consequence for early applicants is straightforward: files filed under the temporary process are no longer moving on a separate track, even though some later applicants already have certificates in hand. For the Roetters, that leaves one application tied to a cross-border family history and one department rule now handled in the regular queue. Americans who applied early are left waiting inside that line, with their cases now subject to the same first-in, first-out order officials say applies after Dec. 15.
