Canada is seeing a surge in citizenship applications, with a backlog of about 120,000 cases as of Monday, driven in part by anxiety among Americans over policies of the Trump administration, according to the country’s immigration agency.

“Applications for Canadian citizenship certificates are rising rapidly across the globe,” Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said on its website, “driven in large part by thousands of requests submitted from the United States.”

Citizenship certificates serve as official proof of status for people born outside Canada who claim citizenship by descent through a Canadian parent.

Changes introduced under Bill C-3, which passed last December, expanded eligibility beyond citizenship through a parent, allowing some applicants to qualify by proving descent from a Canadian ancestor who may have left the country generations ago.

The surge in demand has pushed processing times for citizenship certificates to 25 months as of Monday.

Immigration lawyers in both the US and Canada have been “overwhelmed” by applications, according to the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Lawyers reportedly said many applicants cite President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and other administration policies as factors behind their decision.

“There’s so many reasons that people, you know, might be looking to leave the States right now or planning for future moves,” said Mab Coates-Davies, chief executive officer of the Association of Canadian Archivists.

Coates-Davies said archivists have also been inundated with requests from people seeking genealogical records to establish their eligibility for Canadian citizenship. (Anadolu Agency)

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