Canada Orders June 13 Canadian Citizenship Certificate Reviews
Canada's citizenship department emailed recent recipients of a canadian citizenship certificate in the United States on June 13, asking them to send back the paper document for review. Some of the people contacted already had a passport and a Social Insurance Number in anticipation of a move to Canada.
The letters say the citizenship claim, once approved, is now under review. They also tell recipients they can respond with more documentary evidence, and that the certificate will be returned if entitlement is upheld.
June 13 letters
The notices cite subsection 26 of the Citizenship Regulations, which lets the Registrar of Canadian Citizenship ask a person to surrender a citizenship certificate when there is reason to believe they may not be entitled to it. The government described the process as a review, not a revocation of citizenship.
The action reaches people who already held certificates and had been approved before the emails arrived. That makes the request more than a routine paperwork check: it asks recipients to hand over the document they were already told to rely on while the file is reopened.
IRCC document review
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the documents submitted did not come from the source authority. It also said that when an applicant could not get a source document, they did not include a written explanation and proof that they had tried to obtain the documents.
The issue centers on whether applicants can show an unbroken lineage from a Canadian citizen to themselves. The current review does not end the citizenship claim on its own, but it does put the certificate back into the department's hands while the application file is re-examined.
Certificate holders in the United States
The June 13 emails went to recent recipients across the United States, including people who had already arranged documents for an imminent move to Canada. Those recipients were told they could submit more evidence in support of the application.
For anyone who receives one of the letters, the immediate step is simple: respond with the additional records requested and return the paper certificate. If the department accepts the entitlement, the certificate goes back.
