New Brunswick to change fees for historical records used to prove citizenship by descent

FREDERICTON — The province of New Brunswick has announced upcoming changes to the fees for official historical records that thousands of people need to establish their eligibility for Canadian citizenship by descent.

The new fees are scheduled to take effect on Dec. 1, 2026, according to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick. The final amounts have not yet been disclosed.

The decision comes amid a sharp rise in demand for birth, marriage and death certificates, particularly from U.S. citizens seeking to prove a connection to Canadian ancestors after the Citizenship Act was amended in December 2025.

According to a report by CIC News, the changes could particularly affect residents of Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, states that historically received large numbers of immigrants from New Brunswick.

What are the current fees for obtaining records?

Official data show that a certified copy of a historical record currently costs $11, including postage.

The archives also charge an additional $1 for each extra page in the requested record.

These fees are under review, but authorities have not announced the new amounts or whether they will apply to requests submitted before December that are still awaiting processing.

It is important to distinguish between the Provincial Archives' fees and the fee for applying for a proof of citizenship certificate from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The announced change concerns obtaining historical records, not the federal citizenship fees themselves.

Bill C-3 opens the door to descendants of Canadians

Demand for records rose after the federal Bill C-3 came into force on Dec. 15, 2025.

The law removed previous restrictions that limited the passing of citizenship by descent to the first generation born outside Canada, allowing additional groups to establish their citizenship through their parents and grandparents.

For people born outside Canada before that date, citizenship may have been granted automatically under the amendments if they meet the legal requirements.

For those born on or after Dec. 15, 2025, different conditions apply when the Canadian parent was born outside the country, including proof that the parent was physically present in Canada for 1,095 days before the child's birth.

Canadian ancestry alone does not guarantee eligibility in every case.

Requests have quadrupled

The archives received about 100 genealogy requests a month in 2025, but that number rose to about 400 citizenship-related requests a month by spring 2026.

More than 1,000 files have piled up, according to provincial archivist Joanna Aiton Kerr, and wait times have increased markedly.

Where an initial response took six to eight weeks in May, current estimates indicate a wait of at least six months before an archives employee begins reviewing a request.

That period does not include the actual search for the records or the mailing time, which usually takes two to four weeks after the fees are paid.

More than a million records available to search

The province has expanded its digital database by adding birth records dating back to 1929, and marriage and death records dating back to 1975.

The number of records included reached about 1.17 million, according to an update on Nov. 6.

Birth certificates registered before 1930, and marriage and death records registered before 1976, can be searched online.

More recent records must be requested through the Vital Statistics office of Service New Brunswick, subject to the rules on access to personal records.

How can applicants avoid further delays?

The archives advise searching the online databases before submitting a request and gathering the names of ancestors, approximate dates, and the places where the birth, marriage or death took place.

Church records and historical directories may also help identify the correct document, especially when family information is incomplete.

Archives staff arrange payment by Visa or Mastercard, then send the documents by regular mail without tracking.

The developments show that wider opportunities to prove Canadian citizenship have come with growing pressure on archive services, while the amount of the new fees and how they will apply to pending files have yet to be announced.