Canadian Citizenship Update
On June 5, 2025, Amended the Citizenship Act aimed at making Canadian citizenship by descent more inclusive and addressing historical inequities. This bill responds to a December 2023 Ontario Superior Court ruling that declared the “first-generation limit” (FGL) unconstitutional, as it created disparities by restricting citizenship for children born abroad to Canadian parents who were also born abroad.
Key Changes Proposed by Bill C-3
· Eliminating the First-Generation Limit
The current Citizenship Act, amended in 2009, restricts citizenship by descent to the first generation born abroad, meaning Canadians born outside Canada cannot automatically pass citizenship to their children born abroad. Bill C-3 proposes to:
· Automatically Grant Citizenship: Anyone born abroad to a Canadian parent before the bill’s enactment, who would have been a citizen but for the FGL, will gain citizenship automatically. This includes second- or subsequent-generation Canadians and “Lost Canadians” affected by outdated provisions, such as the former section 8 of the Citizenship Act, which required retention applications by age 28.
· Substantial Connection Test: For children born or adopted abroad after the bill’s enactment, a Canadian parent born abroad must demonstrate a “substantial connection” to Canada—defined as 1,095 cumulative days (approximately three years) of physical presence in Canada before the child’s birth or adoption—to pass on citizenship.
· Restoring Citizenship for “Lost Canadians”
Bill C-3 aims to restore citizenship to individuals and their descendants who lost or were denied citizenship due to historical rules, including:
· Those impacted by the “28-year rule” (pre-1977 requirement to retain citizenship by age 28).
· Descendants of women who lost British subject status before 1977 due to marrying non-Commonwealth nationals.
· Others excluded by prior legislative gaps in 2009 and 2015 reforms.
· Inclusive Adoption Rules
The bill extends citizenship access to adopted children born abroad beyond the first generation. Canadian parents born abroad who meet the 1,095-day residency requirement can apply for a direct grant of citizenship for their adopted children, aligning adoption rules with those for biological children.
