当帕斯卡·苏德和梅莎·史密斯在1月份为迎接他们的第一个孩子做准备时，选择似乎很简单。
When Pascal Sud and Meisha Smith prepared in January for the arrival of their first child, the choice seemed simple.
史密斯将在她的祖国牙买加分娩，那里有家人支持，然后他们三个月后会一起返回蒙特利尔。
Smith would give birth in her home country of Jamaica where she had family support, and then they would together return to Montreal three months later.
当时，他们的女儿索菲安需要拿到加拿大公民身份证明才能飞回加拿大，而办理这份证明的等待时间在四到六周之间。但八个多月过去了，他们仍在等待。苏德已经回到蒙特利尔工作，而史密斯和索菲安仍然留在牙买加。
At the time, the wait time for the citizenship certificate that their daughter, Sofianne, needed to fly back to Canada was between four and six weeks. But more than eight months later, they're still waiting. Sud is back at work in Montreal while Smith and Sofianne are still in Jamaica.
“这非常令人沮丧，”苏德说，“我很幸运能陪她们三个月……但从那以后，我错过了每一个阶段，与她们分离真的很难受。”他并非孤例。
"It's been very frustrating," said Sud. "I was lucky to be there for three months … but I've been missing every step since, and it's been very difficult to be apart from them."
加拿大移民、难民和公民部（IRCC）正努力应对大量涌入的公民身份申请——其中许多申请源于去年年底联邦法律的一项变更，该变更允许任何能够证明自己拥有加拿大祖先的人提出申请。这一积压问题导致像索菲安这样在国外出生的加拿大人无法回国。
He's not alone. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) is struggling to handle a flood of citizenship applications — many of them from a change to federal law late last year that allows anyone who can prove they have a Canadian ancestor to apply. That backlog is preventing Canadians born abroad like Sofianne from coming home.
加拿大公民身份证明申请如今面临近3年的延迟。根据该部门9月3日发布的最新信息，目前有13.6万份申请等待处理。申请公民身份证明的人现在需要等待33个月。按照这个速度，索菲安可能要到三岁多才能进入加拿大。
Canadian citizenship certificate applications now facing nearly 3-year delays According to the department's most recent update on Sept. 3, there are 136,000 applications waiting to be processed. Those applying for a citizenship certificate now face a wait of 33 months. At that rate, Sofianne could be more than three years old before she can enter Canada.
面对这一延迟，苏德为索菲安申请了访客签证，希望她能持牙买加护照前往加拿大。但加拿大移民、难民和公民部拒绝了这项申请——称她已经是加拿大人，必须持加拿大护照入境。
Faced with this delay, Sud applied for a visitor's visa for Sofianne to travel to Canada on her Jamaican passport. But IRCC rejected the application — saying she was Canadian and must travel to Canada on a Canadian passport.
苏德在网上论坛上读到有人试图通过《C-3法案》获得公民身份时感到沮丧——这项移民法修订案专为被称为“失落的加拿大人”的人群而设。许多帖子来自生活在美国等国家的民众，他们试图追溯自己的加拿大血统，以申请公民身份证书。
Sud gets frustrated when he reads in online forums about those who are trying to get citizenship through Bill C-3— the change to immigration law for those known as the "Lost Canadians." Many of the posts are from people living in countries like the United States trying to trace their Canadian ancestry to apply for citizenship certificates.
“这些人并不居住在加拿大，而且其中许多人甚至不打算来加拿大生活，”苏德说。“如果你是居住在加拿大的加拿大人，申请流程并不会有什么不同。”从12月15日到7月31日，已有6810人根据《C-3法案》获得了加拿大公民身份证书，其中超过一半是美国人。另有20515人依据此前已有的条款获得了证书，这些条款旨在承认那些在加拿大父母所生但出生在海外的子女。
"They're not people who are living in Canada and a lot of them, they're not even planning to live in Canada," said Sud. "There is no different process if you're a Canadian living in Canada." Between Dec. 15 and July 31, 6,810 people, more than half of them Americans, have obtained Canadian citizenship certificates under Bill C-3. Another 20,515 have obtained the certificates under the pre-existing provisions to recognize those born abroad to Canadian parents.
加拿大公民身份证书允许持有者申请加拿大护照，并可在加拿大生活和工作。
Canadian citizenship certificates allow holders to apply for a Canadian passport and live and work in Canada.
克里斯汀·贝尔坦波是麦卡锡·泰特洛律师事务所的移民律师，也是加拿大律师协会移民部门的负责人。
Christine Beltempo is an immigration lawyer with McCarthy Tétrault and chair of the Canadian Bar Association's immigration section.
“自《C-3法案》初稿问世以来，我们就知道这会导致申请数量大幅上升，”她说。“如今这已成为现实。不过，我们稍感担忧的是审批时间的指数级增长。”移民部长莱娜·梅特莱吉·迪亚布的发言人塔乌斯·艾特表示，目前的审批时间延长是由于公民身份证书申请量增加所致，但并非所有申请都源于《C-3法案》。
"We have known since the first drafts of Bill C-3 that this would cause a lot of uptake in the number of applications," she said. "That's become a reality at this point in time. What we are a bit concerned about, though, is the exponential increase in processing times." Taous Ait, spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab, said the current processing time is the result of an increase in applications for citizenship certificates — but not all of the applications are the result of Bill C-3.
“我们认识到，漫长的审批时间可能会给申请人带来困难。我们正致力于确保公民身份证书申请能够尽可能高效地处理，同时维护加拿大公民身份计划的完整性，”她在一份声明中写道。
"We recognize that long processing times can be challenging for applicants, and we are focused on ensuring citizenship certificate applications are processed as efficiently as possible while protecting the integrity of Canada's citizenship program," she wrote in a statement.
加拿大移民、难民及公民部（IRCC）正积极应对需求激增，通过培训和吸纳更多工作人员、优化受理流程以及加强工作量管理来采取行动。
"IRCC is actively responding to increased demand by training and onboarding additional staff, improving intake processes and strengthening workload management."
加拿大公民身份法变更冲击美国档案，加拿大公民身份证明申请量激增，主要受美国人推动。保守党移民事务批评人米歇尔·伦佩尔·加纳表示，当议会通过C-3法案时，马克·卡尼总理的政府无视了警告。她称，政府非但没有控制住移民问题，反而制造了一场“灾难”。她说：“许多人有合理的、非常合理的期望，希望联邦政府能够及时提供其有义务提供的文件服务。”
Change in Canada's citizenship law hitting U.S. archives Demand for Canadian citizenship certificates soaring, fuelled by Americans Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner said Prime Minister Mark Carney's government ignored warnings when Parliament adopted Bill C-3. She said instead of getting immigration issues under control, it has created a "dumpster fire." "There are a lot of people who have a reasonable expectation, a very reasonable expectation, for timely service delivery in the documentation that the federal government has a duty to provide to them," she said.
“去年秋天，联邦政府不顾许多利益相关方以及反对党的警告，强行通过了一项立法，削弱了本可防止这场混乱的保障机制，却仍一意孤行。”这位卡尔加里市议员表示，积压问题正在影响阿尔伯塔省的许多人，因为该省近期更新了驾照和健康卡续期规则，其中包含核实公民身份的条款。对于没有护照的人来说，公民身份证明可以作为身份证明文件。
"What the federal government did last fall was put in place a piece of legislation in spite of warnings from many stakeholders, as well as the Opposition party, gutted safeguards that could have prevented this mess and charged ahead anyways." The Calgary MP said the backlog is affecting many in Alberta, where recent changes to provincial rules to renew driver's licenses and health cards include provisions to verify citizenship. A citizenship certificate can serve as proof for those without a passport.
“我确实在党团内部听到了这些声音，”她说。“真正需要负责清除这一积压问题的，是移民部长，我们早已告诉她这种情况会发生。”
"It's certainly something that I'm hearing in my caucus," she said. "The onus really is on the immigration minister to clear this backlog that we told her was going to happen."
新民主党移民事务批评人珍妮·关呼吁政府恢复移民、难民及公民部被削减的人员配置和资源，称处理延迟“完全不合理且不可接受”。罗伯特·伍德里的家人也陷入了这一积压困境。
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan called on the government to restore staffing and resources that were cut at IRCC, calling the processing delays "simply unreasonable and unacceptable." Robert Woodrich's family is also caught in the backlog.
伍德里奇出生并成长于安大略省温莎，但已在加拿大境外生活多年——最初在泰国，他的女儿和儿子都出生在那里；目前则居住在瑞士，他的家族祖籍地。2025年2月，他为三岁的女儿米歇尔申请了公民身份证书，之后又为儿子申请，以便他们能够前往加拿大探望祖父和其他家人。
Woodrich was born and raised in Windsor, Ont., but has lived outside of Canada for several years — first in Thailand, where his daughter and son were born, and now in Switzerland where his family has ancestral roots. In February 2025, he applied for a citizenship certificate for his three-year-old daughter, Michelle, and later his son, so they could visit their grandfather and other family in Canada.
米歇尔持有瑞士护照，但与苏德一样，伍德里奇被告知，他的女儿应该持加拿大护照前往加拿大。
Michelle has a Swiss passport but, similarly to Sud, Woodrich has been told that his daughter is supposed to travel to Canada on a Canadian passport.
他们计划于本周晚些时候前往加拿大探望家人。申请 Nearly 600 days 后，他仍未拿到女儿的公民身份证书；直到10月7日航班起飞前一天，他都可能无法确定加拿大是否会批准特别许可，允许她持瑞士护照前往加拿大。
They are scheduled to visit family later this week. Nearly 600 days after he applied, he still doesn't have her citizenship certificate and might not know until the day before the Oct. 7 flight whether Canada will grant a special authorization for her to travel on her Swiss passport.
“这些孩子都是加拿大公民。他们出生的那一天起就是加拿大公民，”伍德里奇说。“我只需要这些证书来办理护照，让他们能够前往他们在其中拥有公民身份的加拿大。”移民律师科林·辛格表示，由于米歇尔尚未收到加拿大公民身份证书，她目前还不具备加拿大公民的法律身份，因此她应该可以持瑞士护照顺利前往加拿大。
"These children are Canadian. They were Canadian the day they were born," said Woodrich. "I just need these certificates to get the passport so they can go to Canada where they are citizens." Immigration lawyer Colin Singer said that since Michelle has not yet received a Canadian citizenship certificate, she is not yet legally a Canadian citizen, so she should be able to travel without issue to Canada with her Swiss passport.
温莎—蒂肯肖—湖岸选区保守党议员凯西·博雷利一直在帮助伍德里奇以及另外四个受到积压问题影响的家庭。
Kathy Borrelli, Conservative MP for the riding of Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore, has been helping Woodrich and four other families caught in the backlog.
“罗伯特的孩子们有权获得加拿大公民身份，我认为，他们竟然必须等待33个月，才能拿到前往加拿大探望祖父母及其他大家族所需的文件，简直荒谬，”博雷利说。
"Robert's children are entitled to Canadian citizenship and I think it's outrageous that they should have to wait 33 months to get the documentation that they need to enter Canada in order to see their grandparents and their extended family," Borrelli said.
博雷利表示，政府本应为C-3号法案实施后激增的申请数量做好更充分的准备。
Borrelli said the government should have been better prepared for the volume of requests in the wake of Bill C-3.
“他们本应预见到，如今闸门已经打开，他们将收到数十万份申请，”她说，“所以，我们正在为政府方面的错误决定付出代价，这实在不公平。”
"They should have anticipated that the floodgates are open now and that they would get hundreds of thousands of applications," she said. "So, we're suffering from the bad decisions on the government's part and it's just not fair."