More than 300,000 people gained Canadian citizenship in 2023
Innovation is speeding up the process of getting a passport.
In 2023, more than 354,000 people will officially become Canadian citizens. This milestone is traditionally marked by receiving the coveted passport at a ceremony. More than 3,000 such ceremonies were held across the country during the year.
2023 was a slightly less "fruitful" year in this regard — in 2022, by comparison, 375,413 people were granted citizenship. But even though IRCC issued slightly fewer passports this past year, the overall trend of more than 300,000 new citizens still holds. Prior to that, the numbers were significantly lower: 250,513 in 2019, 110,989 in 2020, and 137,133 in 2021.
Procedure for obtaining citizenship
You can learn more about the conditions for obtaining citizenship from our special text. But why has the procedure significantly accelerated in recent years?
- The appearance of an online tool for application in 2021 has played an important role. The initiation ceremony can also now be moved to a virtual space.
- The Ministry has created an online tracker of citizenship applications, which allows to monitor the status of applications and quickly find out what additional actions the applicant needs to take.
- Over the past year, more staff have been hired to work on processing citizenship applications.
As a result, those wishing to obtain a Canadian passport spend less time waiting. According to official data, in January 2022, about 46% of applications for citizenship were pending. But by November 2023, the Canadian Migration Service had reduced this number to 20%.
It should be noted that the processing period does not begin when the application is sent, but when it is received by the ministry. If you send the documents by mail, processing begins after the time it takes for the shipment to arrive. And if you submit your application online or in person, processing begins as soon as the documents are submitted.
