Over 300,000 people became Canadian citizens in 2023

According to data from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), in 2023, more than 354,000 people became Canadian citizens in more than 3,000 citizenship ceremonies across the country.

In 2022, 375,413 people became citizens of Canada, marking a notable surge in the nation’s naturalization trend over the preceding two years.

To put it in perspective, the number of new Canadian citizens in 2019 was 250,513, 110,989 new citizens in 2020 and 137,133 in 2021.

How is IRCC reducing citizenship backlog?

IRCC has been working towards their goal to process 80% of citizenship applications within service standards. In January 2022, the percentage of backlog of citizenship applications was about 46%. As of November 2023, IRCC reduced the application backlog to 20%, which represents IRCC’s target number.

IRCC has reduced the backlog by:

• Launching a new platform for applicants to complete the citizenship test online
• Introducing virtual citizenship ceremonies
• Launching online application processes for most clients looking to apply for citizenship, get straightforward proof of citizenship or search citizenship records
• Creating an online citizenship application tracker to help clients stay up to date on the status of their application and any required next steps
• Hiring more employees to speed up processing across our business lines