Citizenship Processing Times and Draw Trends: January - June 2025

We’re wrapping up our Q1/Q2 2025 Canadian immigration program analysis series. In this post, we examine and compare the average processing times for Canadian citizenship applications. The timeline being reviewed is from January through June 2025. 

Citizenship processing timelines varied greatly at the beginning of 2025. The average processing time was 151 days (5 months) in January with a slight decline in February (falling to 140 days /4.7 months). With a 126-day average in March, the first half of the year had the fastest average at 4.2 months. Nevertheless, this downward tendency was not sustained. In April, the average processing time increased back to 156 days (5.2 months) and in May, it was the slowest, at 184 days (6.1 months). A slight recovery was observed in June, with an average wait time of 147 days, or 4.9 months.

Compared to fluctuations seen in 2024, where timelines swung between 4 to 9 months across the year, 2025 so far appears more contained but still exhibits a gradual upward shift in processing times. May’s average of 6.1 months is notable and closely mirrors a similar trends observed in mid-2024.

When we examine individual case data by nationality, we discover that processing times for citizenship vary greatly, especially for Indian candidates. India really shows on both ends of the spectrum—the longest delay we observed is 744 days and other Indian applicants had waits of 460, 238, and 226 days. Among the countries with the greatest delays were the UK, Nigeria, Australia, and Turkey; their maximum durations ranged from 195 to 209 days.

At the other extreme, Indian applicants also had the shortest wait durations; some were processed in as little as 69, 78, and 79 days. China (88 days), Ukraine (84 days), and the United Kingdom (80 days) are other nationalities which experienced quick processing. Even for candidates from the same country, these stories demonstrate how erratic the citizenship application process can be.

Additionally, we observe notable variations from month to month between the fastest and slowest processing speeds. For instance, January had a range of 84 to 460 days, and March had a range of 69 to 238 days. The range in April was 88 to 226 days while the range in May was the widest, ranging from a low of 110 days to the longest delay of the year, 744 days. These discrepancies probably result from variations in document verification, background checks, and other review factors.

Overall, the first half of 2025 illustrates that despite the noticeable month-to-month fluctuations, the citizenship application processing times actually experienced by applicants (on average closer to 5 months) still greatly vary from what the government is estimating. The applications were on average processed significantly faster than what the government was estimating. For prospective applicants, these insights underline the importance of understanding that individual timelines can vary well beyond the average.

P.S. If you’re looking to dive into the citizenship data on your own, you can refer to our Canadian Citizenship tracker. All of the data is available for any of our users to review.