The Next Passport
Bill C-3 · Application ProcessHow to Apply for Canadian Citizenship by Descent
This page is informational, not legal advice. It describes the Canadian citizenship by descent application process in general terms based on publicly available government sources. For guidance on your specific situation, consult a licensed Canadian immigration attorney. Canadian law can change — the information below reflects Bill C-3 as it came into force on December 15, 2025 and may not reflect subsequent amendments.
Last verified: September 9, 2026 · Maintained by The Next Passport (Warner Creates LLC).
Bill C-3 (An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), S.C. 2025, c. 5) received Royal Assent on November 20, 2025 and came into force on December 15, 2025. For anyone born outside Canada before that date it restored citizenship by descent regardless of how many generations ago the Canadian ancestor lived, provided an unbroken chain of birth to a Canadian citizen exists and can be documented. Before Bill C-3, only the first generation born abroad could claim citizenship by descent. Births on or after December 15, 2025 are governed by a different rule — a two-limb test, not a bar; see “For Births On or After December 15, 2025” below.
The application process uses the existing proof-of-citizenship pathway through Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). IRCC does offer an online application, and it also publishes the list of people who must apply on paper instead. We do not publish a figure for how many descent applicants that catches — IRCC publishes none — but two entries on the list are aimed squarely at this route, in IRCC's own words: “you were born outside of Canada to a parent who was born in Canada on or before February 16, 1977, or became a naturalized Canadian citizen on or before April 16, 2009,” and “you don't know information about your parents or grandparents.” The rest of the list: anyone born in Canada on or before February 14, 1977; anyone naturalized on or before April 16, 2009; anyone born in Canada (or a minor who was); a legal guardian applying for a minor; anyone replacing or updating a certificate; anyone applying for four or more children, or for two to three children only some of whom are naturalized; anyone applying for a replacement for themselves and their children; and anyone whose reason for applying differs between the people on the application. Check that list against your own facts rather than assuming; it is short and specific.
Step-by-Step Process
These steps reflect the IRCC proof-of-citizenship application process as of September 9, 2026. Always verify current requirements on the official IRCC website.
- 1
Determine your eligibility
Verify that you may qualify for Canadian citizenship by descent under Bill C-3. You need an unbroken chain of birth to a Canadian citizen — each person in the chain must have been born to a parent who was a Canadian citizen at the time of their birth. Take the free eligibility check to walk through your specific situation.
- 2
Gather supporting documents
Collect long-form birth certificates for every person in the chain from you back to your anchor ancestor (the person born in Canada or who became a Canadian citizen). You will also need proof of your anchor ancestor's Canadian citizenship. For an ancestor whose status predates the first Canadian Citizenship Act, do not reach for a general record of residence: the CIT 0001 guide names two specific things it accepts — proof of British subject status before January 1, 1947, and proof of landed immigrant status in Canada before January 1, 1947 (in each case April 1, 1949 for Newfoundland and Labrador). Otherwise a Canadian birth certificate or a naturalization certificate. Marriage certificates are especially important for connecting names across generations — if a parent's name on their birth certificate doesn't match their name on their child's birth certificate (e.g., maiden vs. married name), the marriage certificate documents the change. If you have multiple Canadian ancestors, you only need to document one line of descent — choose the one with the best available records.
- 3
Complete form CIT 0001 (Application for Canadian Citizenship Certificate)
Download the current version of CIT 0001 from the IRCC website — as of September 9, 2026 that is the version IRCC labels “Last updated: August 2026”. Do not reuse a copy you downloaded earlier this year; IRCC revised both the form and its guide repeatedly through 2026. The form page titles it “Application for a Citizenship Certificate”; its guide is the “Guide for Paper Applications for a Citizenship Certificate for Adults and Minors (Proof of Citizenship) under Section 3” — it is the same form and the same $75 CAD fee for a minor as for an adult. Fill in your personal details and those of your Canadian parent (or ancestor, for multi-generational claims).
- 4
Complete form CIT 0014 (Document Checklist)
CIT 0014 is the official IRCC document checklist. It itemizes every document you must include with your application. Check off each item as you assemble your package — missing documents will result in your application being returned.
- 5
Get citizenship photos
The CIT 0001 guide asks for two (2) identical printed citizenship photos, and tells you to print IRCC's “Citizenship photo specifications” page and take it to the photographer. The specification itself, read at source on September 9, 2026: “50 mm wide X 70 mm high (2 inches wide X 2- 3/4 inches long)”, with the face measuring “between 31 mm (1- 1/4 inches) and 36 mm (1- 7/16 inches) from chin to crown of head”. Take the printed page to the photographer anyway — IRCC returns applications whose photos miss the spec, and the live page is the version that governs.
- 6
Pay the $75 CAD fee — per person, online only
The CIT 0001 guide states that “The only acceptable form of payment is online payment”, so a cheque or money order in the envelope will get the package returned. Pay through the IRCC payment portal, print the receipt, and include it with your mailed application. The fee is per person — if you are applying for multiple family members, each person files their own CIT 0001 and pays their own $75 CAD. There is no adult/minor split: a minor's certificate is $75 CAD exactly as an adult's is.
- 7
Mail your application
Send your completed application package to the Case Processing Centre. Use the appropriate address:
Regular mail (Canada Post)
Case Processing Centre - Sydney-Proofs
P.O. Box 10000
Sydney, Nova Scotia
B1P 7C1Courier (FedEx, UPS, etc.)
IRCC Digitization Centre - Proofs
3050 Wilson Ave
New Waterford, Nova Scotia
B1H 5V8
Required Documents Overview
Based on IRCC requirements for proof-of-citizenship applications. Always verify the current CIT 0014 checklist for the most up-to-date list.
Applicant
- Long-form birth certificate
- Two pieces of ID (one must include a photo)
- Two identical printed citizenship photos, taken to IRCC's citizenship photo specifications
- Completed CIT 0001 form
- Completed CIT 0014 document checklist
- Fee payment receipt ($75 CAD, per person — online payment only)
Each Ancestor in the Chain
- Long-form birth certificate
- Marriage certificate (if applicable — to connect name changes across generations)
- Death certificate (if deceased)
- Divorce decree (if applicable)
Anchor Ancestor (Canadian Citizen)
- Proof of Canadian citizenship — a birth certificate issued by a Canadian province/territory, or a naturalization certificate. For a pre-1947 ancestor the guide names proof of British subject status, or proof of landed immigrant status in Canada, before January 1, 1947 (April 1, 1949 for Newfoundland and Labrador) — not a general record of residence
- Marriage certificate (if applicable)
- Death certificate (if deceased)
Translations
Any document not in English or French must include a certified translation. The translation must be accompanied by an affidavit from the translator confirming its accuracy.
Important: Send Copies — With One Exception
The CIT 0001 guide asks for “clear and easy-to-read colour copies of your documents, unless otherwise stated” — so send colour photocopies of supporting documents, not originals. The signed form itself and the two printed citizenship photos are the obvious originals. The exception the guide states outright applies if you already hold a certificate: “You must return any original certificates you have with your application package,” including any pink transmission copies, because IRCC “must receive previous certificates before a new one can be issued.” We do not tell you whether IRCC returns your supporting documents — the guide does not say, and we found no source that does.
Processing Times
As of September 2026, IRCC estimates approximately 33 months for proof-of-citizenship applications — up from ~25 months in August and ~19 months in July. That figure is IRCC's own processing-times tool, stamped “Last updated: September 3, 2026”. The roughly 136,000 pending applications comes from the same IRCC tool — “Total number of people waiting for a decision: About 136,000 people waiting”, read September 9, 2026.
Check current processing times on the IRCC processing times page.
For Births On or After December 15, 2025
Read who this attaches to, not just what it requires. Bill C-3 rewrote section 3(3) as a two-limb conjunctive test, and it is a test about the parent, applied at the moment a child is born on or after December 15, 2025. The parent's own birth date is irrelevant. A child born outside Canada on or after that date is excluded only if both of the following are true:
- the citizen parent they take citizenship from was themselves born outside Canada and was a citizen under one of the descent paragraphs the subsection lists. That second half is easy to drop and it changes the answer: s. 3(3)(a)(i)(A) enumerates paragraphs 3(1)(b), (c.1), (e), (g) to (j) and (o) to (r), and 3(1)(c) — citizenship by grant — is not among them. So a parent who was born abroad but became Canadian by naturalizing falls outside this limb altogether; and
- in the Act's words, “neither of the person's parents who was a citizen was physically present in Canada for at least 1,095 days before the person's birth” — about three years, and they need not be consecutive.
Fail either limb and the exclusion does not bite. So a child born in 2026 to a Canadian-born parent is a citizen with no presence test at all; and a child born in 2026 to a foreign-born citizen parent who has 1,095 days in Canada is also a citizen. IRCC says the same thing in plainer words: “If you were born outside Canada on or after December 15, 2025, and your Canadian parent was born outside Canada, you must prove that your Canadian parent spent 1,095 days in Canada before you were born.” IRCC's sentence is the ordinary case, not the whole rule — read the Act where your facts are unusual.
One further route exists for the case where the test genuinely is not met and the child would otherwise have no citizenship at all. Bill C-3 added section 5(5), headed “Statelessness — bloodline connection”: the Minister shall, on application, grant citizenship to a person born outside Canada on or after December 15, 2025 to a birth parent who was a citizen at the time, who is under 23, has always been stateless, has been physically present in Canada for at least 1,095 days during the four years before applying, and has no listed conviction. It is a grant with its own application, not this route, and no oath is required (s. 5(6)).
The days are counted on form CIT 0555, “How to calculate physical presence in Canada for a Canadian parent” (current version August 2026). Section 3(5) then switches subsection (3) off entirely — and it is wider than it is usually described. Its own marginal note reads “Exception — child or grandchild of person in service abroad”: it covers a person born to a parent employed outside Canada in or with the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal public administration or the public service of a province, and separately a person one of whose grandparents (including an adoptive grandparent) was so employed at the time of the parent's birth or adoption. Being locally engaged does not count.
Adoption is a separate route with a parallel rule. IRCC states that “If you were born outside Canada and adopted by a Canadian parent, you're not automatically a Canadian citizen” — adoption runs through a direct citizenship grant under section 5.1 (subsections 5.1(4) and (5) are quoted whole on our Bill C-3 legal-updates page). CIT 0001 is the form “under Section 3” and is the wrong application for an adoptee; nothing else on this page covers that route.
None of this affects the eligibility of a person born before December 15, 2025. For them the first-generation limit was removed outright, at any generational depth, with no presence test.
Practical Tips
No generational limit
For a person born outside Canada before December 15, 2025, section 3(3) does not apply at all — its opening words limit it to births “on or after” that date. So there is no generational limit on their claim: if there is an unbroken chain of birth to a citizen parent, section 3(1)(b) (births after February 14, 1977) or section 3(1)(g) (births before February 15, 1977) makes the person a citizen by operation of law, at any depth. That is the statute rather than an observation about what IRCC happens to be approving — we do not publish a claim about how deep the chains being processed run, because IRCC publishes no such breakdown.
Paper applications for 2nd+ generation
If you are the second generation or further born abroad (your grandparent or further back was the Canadian), check IRCC's paper-only list before you start an online application. The entry most likely to apply to you is IRCC's own: “you were born outside of Canada to a parent who was born in Canada on or before February 16, 1977, or became a naturalized Canadian citizen on or before April 16, 2009.” Two others catch these claims too — “you don't know information about your parents or grandparents,” and any application covering four or more children. The CIT 0001 form has sections for parents and grandparents; for great-grandparents and beyond, include the information on a separate sheet with your supporting documentation.
Your ancestor doesn't need to apply first
Your parent or grandparent does not need to apply for their own citizenship certificate before you apply for yours. They never need to apply at all. You can apply independently, even if the Canadian ancestor in your chain has passed away.
Apostilles are not required
The CIT 0001 guide sets out no legalization, authentication or apostille step anywhere — it asks for colour copies of documents issued by the original authority, and for a translation plus translator's affidavit where a document is not in English or French. That is a negative read of the guide rather than a sentence IRCC writes, so it is worth confirming against the current guide before you spend money on an apostille some other country's process taught you to expect.
After you apply
After IRCC receives your application, they will send an Acknowledgement of Receipt (AOR). Processing times vary. You are applying for a citizenship certificate, not citizenship itself — if you qualify, you are already a Canadian citizen by operation of law. The certificate is proof of that status.
Build your document checklist
The Next Passport generates a personalized document checklist based on your specific lineage chain and tracks the status of each item. The eligibility check takes about 2 minutes and does not require an account.
Build your document checklist →Ready to map out your specific application?
Start your free eligibility check →Not legal advice. This page describes the Canadian citizenship by descent application process in general terms based on publicly available government sources. Canadian law can change — for guidance on your specific situation, consult a licensed Canadian immigration attorney.