Canada Scraps First-Generation Citizenship Limit, Recognizing Thousands Born Abroad as Citizens
- Bill C-3 came into force on December 15, 2025, removing Canada's first-generation citizenship limit and automatically granting citizenship to thousands born abroad
- Children born on or after December 15, 2025, to a Canadian parent who was also born abroad must now meet a new 1,095-day physical presence test
- IRCC is sitting on a growing backlog of proof-of-citizenship applications, leaving some newly recognised citizens unable to travel back to Canada
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Canada rewrote one of its longest-standing citizenship rules on December 15, 2025, when Bill C-3 came into force and scrapped the first-generation limit.
That provision, in place since 2009, had prevented Canadian citizenship from passing beyond one generation born outside the country.
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With its removal, thousands of people born abroad automatically became citizens by operation of law, without any application for status, oath, or connection test.
The change also resolved the cases of the remaining "Lost Canadians," a group excluded by older provisions that previous fixes in 2009 and 2015 had failed to address.
For anyone born or adopted abroad before December 15, 2025, to a Canadian parent, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) says they are now citizens and can apply for a citizenship certificate to confirm it.
New rules for children born after December 15, 2025
Parliament did not remove all limits. For children born or adopted on or after that date to a Canadian parent who was themselves born or adopted abroad, a substantial-connection test now applies.
The parent must show 1,095 cumulative days of physical presence in Canada before the child's birth or adoption. The requirement was built into the legislation as a safeguard against citizenship by descent drifting further from any genuine tie to Canada.
Certificate backlog leaves travellers stranded
Holding citizenship in law and holding the document that proves it are not the same thing, and that gap is now causing real difficulty. According to CBC News reporting, IRCC has accumulated a backlog of proof-of-citizenship applications from the newly recognised group.
Some people born abroad cannot obtain their certificates in time to travel to Canada, since airlines and border officers rely on documents rather than statutes. Without a valid certificate, the legal right to citizenship offers little practical help at a check-in counter.
The scale of demand was predictable. IRCC's own officer-training materials, released through an access-to-information request, walk through a hypothetical family showing how the old limit applied: a grandparent who lost status, a parent born abroad, a grandchild born abroad.
Under the pre-December 15 rules, the chain of citizenship stopped at the parent. Under Bill C-3, IRCC's own example shows it continuing through to the grandchild. Multiplied across thousands of real families, that represents a significant caseload for the department to process.
IRCC has not published a fast-track option for applicants whose travel depends on receiving their certificate quickly. Anyone relying on newly restored citizenship to return to Canada is advised to submit their application as early as possible and keep travel arrangements flexible until the certificate is in hand.
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Source: Legit.ng
