Canada will grant citizenship to 300,000 applicants by March 2023
The number of new citizens in the 2022-2023 fiscal year will increase significantly. The opportunity to apply for citizenship online will expand, and minors will be able to do so as well.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) published a memorandum announcing a goal to process 285,000 applications and admit 300,000 new citizens by March 31, 2023.
This number will exceed pre-pandemic numbers for 2019-2020 when 253,000 applications for citizenship were received. In the following fiscal year, the numbers dropped due to the coronavirus pandemic, with 217,000 newcomers receiving Canadian citizenship status. So far, 116,000 people have already taken the citizenship oath, while only 35,000 applicants became citizens during the same period last year. At this rate, the goal of 300,000 citizenship approvals is likely to be reached in the next six months.
Previously, the IRCC accepted mostly paper documents sent by mail, but since November 2020, the citizenship application process has gone digital. Since then, the Department has sought to improve its online service. So, by the end of 2022, minors (people under 18) will be able to apply for citizenship online.
As the number of online applications increased, so did the processing time. By June 2022, 413,000 applications had accumulated. To speed things up, in addition to the recent optimization, the IRCC hired 1,000 new employees. They are expected to process up to 80% of all applications received during the current fiscal year. With the ongoing measures to modernize the immigration system, newcomers will have a better chance of getting Canadian citizenship soon in 2023.
