Canada Revokes Citizenship from Recent Applicants Due to Documentation Issues

The Canadian government has revoked citizenship for many recent applicants who were encouraged to apply under a newly amended ancestry rule. This rule, which broadened citizenship by descent to include second-generation Canadians, led to a surge in applications after its implementation in December. However, many applicants were found to have submitted insufficient documentation. On Saturday, numerous individuals received notifications from the Canadian government requesting the return of their citizenship certificates. The notice, signed by Peggy Sun, registrar of Canadian citizenship, stated that the recipients may not be entitled to hold their certificates due to missing documentation. Affected individuals expressed their frustrations online, sharing copies of the letters they received. The revocation was prompted by the discovery that many applicants had been approved using documents that did not meet the required standards. Some applicants had submitted printed documents from ancestry websites or records from archives instead of official statistics offices. The total number of individuals who received revocation notices remains unclear, but approximately 4,075 citizenship certificates were issued under the new law since its passage, according to CBC.