Canadian Citizenship by Descent: What Bill C-3 Changes

If you were born before December 15, 2025, you may now qualify for Canadian citizenship by descent under Bill C-3. The first-generation limit that previously blocked your case was removed effective December 15, 2025, so long as the chain of descent from a Canadian citizen ancestor is unbroken and can be documented. According to IRCC, eligible individuals are considered citizens automatically — no separate restoration application is required, but you will typically need to apply for proof of citizenship using form CIT 0001 to receive a Citizenship Certificate. Verify your specific facts with IRCC at canada.ca or a licensed Canadian immigration consultant.

The substantial connection test is a new requirement introduced by Bill C-3 that applies only to children born or adopted abroad on or after December 15, 2025. To pass citizenship to a child born abroad in this group, the Canadian parent must demonstrate at least 1,095 cumulative days (three years) of physical presence in Canada at any point before the child's birth or adoption. The days do not need to be consecutive. According to the Library of Parliament's legislative summary, this test prevents perpetual transmission of citizenship abroad across many generations without any real connection to Canada. If you were born before December 15, 2025, the test does not apply to you.

Bill C-71 was introduced in the previous Parliament on May 23, 2024 as the government's first attempt to address the first-generation limit after the Bjorkquist v. Canada ruling. According to OpenParliament's tracker, Bill C-71 did not pass before Parliament prorogued and was effectively terminated. Bill C-3 was introduced on June 5, 2025 in the current Parliament as the replacement and received Royal Assent on November 20, 2025. Bill C-3 is the law that actually changed things — Bill C-71 never came into force. If you see references to C-71 in older articles, treat them as historical context.

Possibly, yes. According to IRCC's December 15, 2025 news release, IRCC began applying the amended Act on December 15, 2025. Many people who were previously refused under the old first-generation limit may now qualify under Bill C-3, particularly second-generation-born-abroad applicants. Per Serotte Law and other firms' published analyses, a new application or formal reconsideration may be warranted depending on your specific facts. The standard form (CIT 0001) and fee structure are unchanged. Always consult a licensed Canadian immigration consultant or attorney for guidance on your specific application history.

The 2009 changes (introduced by Bill C-37) restored citizenship to many people who had lost it under pre-1977 rules, but also introduced the first-generation limit — capping citizenship-by-descent at one generation born outside Canada. That cap was intended to prevent unlimited transmission abroad, but it had the unintended effect of stranding a new category of 'Lost Canadians' whose claim passed through more than one foreign-born generation. Bill C-3 (2025) is the legislative response to the Ontario Superior Court's ruling in Bjorkquist v. Canada (2023 ONSC 7152), which held that the first-generation limit was unconstitutional. Bill C-3 removed the cap for pre-December 15, 2025 births and replaced it, prospectively, with the substantial connection test.

Per IRCC's updated Document Checklist (form CIT 0014, version 06-2026) and the Section 3 application guide, your application must be supported by authentic, reliable and verifiable documents for every generation, and it cannot be supported solely by third-party records. For each person in your chain, you must provide at least one document issued by the original authority — for example a provincial/territorial (or foreign) birth certificate showing the parent-child relationship, a Canadian citizenship or naturalization certificate, a Certificate of Registration of Birth Abroad or of Retention, or a British naturalization certificate issued in Canada or Newfoundland and Labrador. Records downloaded from genealogy platforms such as Ancestry or FamilySearch can support an application but, on their own, are treated as third-party records. The CIT 0014 checklist itself (Scenario 3) also includes an 'any other evidence that your parent is a Canadian citizen' category, and the Federal Court has held in Somers-Edgar v. Canada (2026 FC 417) that applicants may rely on the instructions IRCC publishes. Confirm what your specific chain requires with IRCC at canada.ca or a licensed Canadian immigration consultant.

Per IRCC's Section 3 application guide (CIT 0001, last modified June 19, 2026), if you don't have a birth certificate or birth record for yourself or any parental ancestor, you must send other documents — issued by the original authority — to show parentage and Canadian citizenship. The guide lists: a hospital record of birth; a record from the physician or midwife who witnessed the birth; a 'baptismal certificate or record (including copies or certified records)' where the baptism took place within a reasonable time after the birth; census records; or a boat manifest. Note that a baptismal record copy is acceptable — the June 19 wording walked back the stricter 'certified' phrasing used earlier in June. If you cannot provide official documents at all, IRCC asks you to explain in writing why and to show proof that you tried to obtain them (for example, emails or letters with the original authorities, or confirmation that the records are not available). IRCC has revised this guide more than once in June 2026, so check the current guide for the exact text, and verify your situation with IRCC or a licensed Canadian immigration consultant.

According to The Canadian Press (June 17, 2026), IRCC temporarily paused finalizing some Bill C-3 proof-of-citizenship applications and asked a few dozen people who had already received citizenship certificates to surrender them while it reviews how those certificates were issued. IRCC said it 'is reviewing how this occurred,' and that affected individuals can continue to work during the review but cannot use a Canadian passport in the meantime; the letters reportedly cited applications that did not include documents from the original source authority or evidence of attempts to obtain them. Immigration lawyer Amandeep Hayer (Hayer Law Office), whose firm represented the plaintiffs in Somers-Edgar v. Canada (2026 FC 417), argues that the CIT 0014 checklist is illustrative rather than exhaustive — it expressly accepts 'any other evidence' — and that applicants are entitled to rely on the instructions IRCC publishes. Update (June 30, 2026): IRCC has said this review is now complete. Per its June 30 statement, of 100 certificates initially identified with potentially insufficient documentation, 33 were automatically reinstated after IRCC confirmed the applicant met the legal requirement, and 67 remain outstanding — about one per cent of all certificates issued under C-3 to date. IRCC said it is contacting those 67 clients directly to confirm eligibility or request more information and expected to finish 'within a matter of days,' and it acknowledged that its own documentation guidance had been unclear and has since been reinforced. The Next Passport does not predict how any individual case will be resolved; if you received a letter, consult a licensed Canadian immigration lawyer about your specific situation.

IRCC's long-standing operational guidance to officers, 'Decision making: Standard of review and process for making a reasonable decision' (last modified August 2023 — not part of the June 2026 changes), describes how evidence is assessed. Because citizenship and immigration decisions are civil in nature, the standard of proof is the 'balance of probabilities' — a fact must be more likely than not (more than 50%) to be accepted. The guidance also states there is a presumption that an applicant's evidence is true 'unless there is a valid and compelling reason to doubt' it, and that an officer 'must not be overly suspicious or doubting of the evidence presented.' It adds that duplicates and photocopies are 'to be treated as originals unless there is doubt as to the authenticity of the original.' When weighing how persuasive a document is (its 'probative value'), officers consider whether it is the best document available, whether it was issued by an objective authority with no vested interest, and whether the information is verifiable — which is why submitting the best available record from the original issuing authority is generally prudent. Officers also watch for credibility concerns such as inconsistencies, signs of alteration, or damage that reduces legibility. This guidance does not determine any individual outcome; confirm your situation with IRCC or a licensed Canadian immigration lawyer.

The most authoritative sources are: (1) IRCC's December 15, 2025 news release announcing the Act in force, published at canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship; (2) Justice Canada's published Charter Statement on Bill C-3 at justice.gc.ca, which walks through how the amendments engage the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms; and (3) the Library of Parliament's Legislative Summary of Bill C-3 (45-1), a detailed clause-by-clause analysis. All three are linked in the primary sources section of this page. The underlying statute amended by Bill C-3 is the Citizenship Act (R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29).