Canada changes rules for citizenship descent: All you need to know | World News

Canadian parents born or adopted abroad will be able to pass citizenship on to their child born or adopted outside Canada. (Photo: Unsplash)

Canada has enacted new rules that aim to provide a fair and clear way to citizenship for the children of Canadians who are born outside the country. Bill C-3, which amends the Citizenship Act (2025), was passed the Canadian Parliament last week and has received Royal Assent.

Under the new rules, Canadian citizens can pass on their citizenship to their foreign-born children, both biological and adopted.

How Bill C-3 changes Canadian citizenship requirements

Bill C-3 aims to fix a long-standing complaint of first-generation Canadian citizens, whose children did not inherit their parents’ citizenship as they were born abroad.

The changes to Canada’s citizenship descent rules will benefit hundreds of thousands of first-generation Indian immigrants.

The first-generation limit to Canadian citizenship descent was introduced in 2009. It means that a child born or adopted outside Canada is not a Canadian citizen descent if their Canadian parent was also born or adopted outside Canada.

Ontario Superior Court ruling

In December 2023, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice declared that key parts of the Citizenship Act relating to the first-generation limit to citizenship descent were unconstitutional.

The Canadian government also agreed with the court’s ruling and agreed that the law had unacceptable outcomes for the children of Canadian citizens who were born outside the country.

As per the new rules, a Canadian parent born or adopted abroad will be able to pass citizenship on to their child born or adopted outside Canada on or after the date the bill comes into force, provided they have a substantial connection to Canada.

The Canadian government on Friday clarified that once the new law comes into force, Canadian citizenship will be provided to people born before the bill comes into force, who would have been citizens if not for the first-generation limit or other outdated rules of past legislation.

Until the law is enacted, there will be an interim measure in place for people impacted the first‑generation limit.

The first-generation limit to Canadian citizenship descent was introduced in 2009.

The changes to Canada’s citizenship descent rules will benefit hundreds of thousands of first-generation Indian immigrants, whose children may have been born before their parents migrated to Canada.