FORT KENT, Maine — Genealogy experts on both sides of the border are seeing a surge in inquiries after a new law means that more Mainers may qualify to become Canadian citizens.
Canada once restricted citizenship to people born there. Now, anyone who can prove they had a direct ancestor who was born in Canada, no matter how far back, can claim citizenship.
In Maine, the law’s passage has sparked a flurry of people seeking documents to prove their ancestry. For repositories such as the Acadian Archives at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, that means more people than ever are asking for help documenting their family lineage.
“It opens up a large potential pool of Canadians, and by virtue of the law and the way it’s stated, those folks are already deemed Canadian,” said Patrick Lacroix, director of the University of Maine at Fort Kent’s Acadian Archives. “But of course they might not have the paperwork to prove it.”
Canada passed Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act in December, after the Ontario Superior Court struck down the first-generation limit on citizenship as unconstitutional in 2023.
Since then, Lacroix has seen a significant spike in information requests. He has already fielded about 100 questions and document requests this year, which is on track to more than double the total requests received all of last year.
Some have bluntly told LaCroix they wouldn’t be exploring Canadian citizenship if it weren’t for political turmoil in the United States. They may not plan an immediate move, but want future options.
“Many of them are very explicit about their goal,” he said. “There is no question that some of it is politically driven.”
Tommy Pinette, a University of Maine graduate student, started seeking Canadian citizenship when he heard about the bill in early January. He is working to obtain documents proving ties to his grandmother, who was born in Canada. He has her birth certificate and proof she grew up there, he said.
He was motivated by his ambitions to teach second languages in Canada and reconnect with the Canadian side of his family, from whom he’d been separated for much of his life. But the turbulent political situation in the United States also factored into his decision.
“I found myself asking, why put myself through the turmoil here when I could just as easily be living in Canada, where there seems to be this really coveted level of security that is increasingly hard to come by in the states?” he said.
Pinette said he has had some difficulties navigating the Canadian immigration website.
In his case, obtaining records from New Brunswick was one of the easier parts of the process. He reached out to the registrar and the province is mailing the records to him free.
He has also reconnected with his Canadian relatives and wants to be closer to them.
“I think the biggest difficulty has been that there hasn’t been a clear pathway for Americans who are taking advantage of Bill C3,” he said.
There are 260,800 citizenship applications in process, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
It takes about 10 months to process a citizenship certificate, according to the Canadian government. That means someone who applied in January, for instance, won’t receive a result until about November.
Many in New England can trace their family history to Quebec. The provincial archives, Bibliotheque et Archives nationales du Quebec, can’t keep up with requests, spokesperson Claire-Helene Lengelle said.
“As a government-owned corporation serving the people of Quebec, BAnQ is working to adapt its processes in order to meet citizens’ needs, while accommodating international clients,” Lengelle said. “We cannot predict how long this unprecedented surge in requests will last, but all requests will be processed.”
Requests from the U.S. have soared since Bill C-3 passed, Lengelle said. Last March, the archives received 43 inquiries. This March, the number spiked to 1,500.
The archives charge non-Quebec residents $350 for the first copy of documents verifying citizenship and $100 for additional copies.
New Brunswick charges a search fee of $15 for one three-year period and $10 for each additional three years. Certified copies are $11 per page.
The bill and its implications on Canadian citizenship have been widely discussed on social media sites like Reddit and Facebook, Lacroix said.
“Word spread really quickly in January, so that’s when I started seeing an uptick” in document queries, he said. “Since then, really February, March, and this month, it’s been consistently high. We are on track to far exceed what we had last year.”
Last year, most requests came from genealogists or people doing research as a hobby, he said. This year, people specifically want to obtain Canadian citizenship. Many ask for authenticated documents, and their requests align with the Canadian government’s submission requirements.
Lacroix has not yet seen staff stretched to the point where the Acadian Archives would need to start charging for services.
“I’m hoping that it can stay that way, that we can stay free and open to the public as per the mission of the university system,” he said. “But there might be a point where we need to hire somebody else, and that means we might have to charge extra.”
