- Bill C-3 removed the first-generation limit, allowing some people born abroad before December fifteenth, twenty twenty-five, to claim citizenship through a direct family line.
- Applicants must document every parent-child link to an ancestor who qualified as Canadian under the rules in effect at the time.
- IRCC’s reported queue reached approximately one hundred thirty-six thousand people, with estimated processing times of about thirty-three months.
A Canadian law change may mean some Minnesotans hold Canadian citizenship already, even if they have never applied for it. The change took effect on December 15, 2025, and covers many people born outside Canada before that date who can document a direct family line to a qualifying Canadian citizen.
Parliament passed Bill C-3, which received Royal Assent on November 20, 2025. It removed the former first-generation limit that had generally blocked citizenship from passing to later generations born abroad.
The change reaches beyond people with a Canadian parent. A qualifying connection may run through a grandparent, great-grandparent or more distant direct ancestor. Some people previously excluded by the old restriction may therefore have acquired citizenship retroactively.
Free toolCanada Express Entry Points CalculatorBut a family story is not proof. A Canadian-born relative alone does not establish that a descendant qualifies.
Minnesota’s Canadian roots do not establish citizenship by themselves
Minnesota has long-standing migration, family and commercial connections with Canada, particularly Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec. Descendants of families who moved south may still have a qualifying line, even if they have never lived in Canada.
There is no government count in the material establishing how many Minnesotans gained or can claim citizenship under the change. The 2024 American Community Survey counted 544,354 people across the United States who reported Canadian ancestry. That is a measure of self-identified family background, not a count of citizens or people eligible to claim citizenship.
A person’s claim depends on the law that applied to the ancestor and the evidence linking each generation. In some earlier historical periods, the ancestor may need to meet applicable domicile rules. The reform addresses the “Lost Canadians” issue, involving people excluded by earlier citizenship rules.
Applicants need records linking every generation to a Canadian ancestor
The claim must follow a direct biological or legal parent-child line. A Canadian spouse, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin or other relative outside that line does not transmit citizenship on its own.
Applicants generally need to assemble records that establish both the ancestor’s Canadian status and the link to the applicant:
- Proof of the ancestor’s status, such as a Canadian birth certificate, naturalization record or citizenship certificate.
- The applicant’s full birth record and birth certificates, or equivalent records, for each intervening parent-child relationship.
- Marriage, adoption, legal name-change, divorce and death records when needed to explain differences in names or family relationships.
- Identity documents, citizenship photographs and the prescribed application and fee.
Genealogy websites, family trees, cemetery records and DNA results can help identify leads, but they do not prove citizenship by themselves. Applicants need reliable, verifiable records from civil or government authorities to support the chain.
The ancestor must also have been Canadian under the rules that applied at the relevant time. A Canadian birth, naturalization or another legally recognized basis may establish that status, depending on the period. Gaps in vital records, informal name changes, adoptions and conflicting dates can complicate the evidence.
The route is an application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for a citizenship certificate, also called proof of citizenship. It determines and documents whether the person already holds citizenship; it is not an application to naturalize. Once the status is documented, a person can seek a Canadian passport if desired.
A later generation faces a physical-presence test
The rules differ for a child born or adopted abroad on or after December 15, 2025. If the Canadian parent was also born or adopted outside Canada, that parent generally must show at least 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada before the child’s birth or adoption.
The requirement is known as the “substantial connection” test. It applies to the later birth or adoption, not in the same way to many people born abroad before the law took effect, whose citizenship may have arisen retroactively.
Certificate delays separate citizenship status from proof of it
Reported figures show that IRCC issued 4,075 citizenship certificates under the amended descent provisions between December 15, 2025, and March 31, 2026. About half went to people born in the United States.
A report of IRCC data published on September 3, 2026, put the proof-of-citizenship queue at approximately 136,000 people. The reported wait had reached about 33 months, up from approximately 25 months in August 2026.
A person who applies in September or October 2026 could potentially wait until around mid-2029 for a decision, based on that processing estimate. Timelines can change, so applicants should check IRCC’s current estimate before filing.
Citizenship status and the certificate proving it are separate. Someone may qualify under the law but still need the document to demonstrate that status when seeking a Canadian passport or dealing with employers, schools and border officials. The certificate is the evidence; ancestry alone is not.
The amendment followed litigation challenging the former restriction as unconstitutional and restored citizenship to many people who would have qualified but for that rule. Each claim still turns on a qualifying ancestor and a complete documented line. Missing records can decide whether a family’s Canadian connection becomes a provable citizenship claim.
