Changes to Canada’s citizenship laws are now in effect after the federal government passed legislation that sought to fix gaps that led to so-called “Lost Canadians.”
The new rules under Bill C-3, which became law last month, will now allow Canadian citizenship to be passed down to people born or adopted abroad beyond the first generation, under certain conditions.
Immigration Minister Lena Diab said Monday that the changes to the Citizenship Act “reflect how Canadian families live today,” allowing Canadians who are living, travelling or studying abroad to ensure their children are able to become citizens themselves.
Here’s what to know about the changes.
As of Monday, Dec. 15, people born or adopted abroad to a Canadian parent who was also born or adopted in another country can have citizenship passed down to them.
In order for a person to qualify, their parent must have spent at least three cumulative years (1,095 days) in Canada before the child’s birth or adoption.
Children born outside Canada before Dec. 15 who are second generation or later will be granted automatic Canadian citizenship. Those adopted before that date can now apply for citizenship and have their applications considered under the new rules.
In 2009, the Conservative federal government changed the Citizenship Act so that Canadians born abroad could only pass down their citizenship if their child was born or adopted in Canada.
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That meant the passing down of citizenship ended after the first generation if a citizen born in Canada passed it onto their child born or adopted outside the country.
The first-generation limit created so-called “Lost Canadians” who had family connections to the country but could not themselves become citizens.
The limit was deemed unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court in December 2023.
The Liberal government did not appeal the decision, “recognizing that the law had unacceptable outcomes for Canadians whose children were born outside the country,” a Monday release from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said.
A previous effort to amend the Citizenship Act to respond to the court’s ruling died in Parliament when it was dissolved early this year to trigger the federal election.
The government approved an interim measure allowing people affected by the first-generation limit to apply for a “discretionary grant of citizenship.”
IRCC says people who applied under the interim measure do not need to apply again if their application is still in progress. Those applications will now be considered under the new rules.
Immigration lawyer Sujit Choudhry has argued that Bill C-3, while welcome for “Lost Canadians” born outside Canada, is unconstitutional because it imposes a new burden on intercountry adoptees to earn citizenship.
He says the new rules violate the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, an international treaty that Canada is a signatory to, because domestic adoptees do not need to meet the same connection test.
Conservatives, meanwhile, sought to amend the legislation by ensuring the cumulative three years of time a Canadian parent must spend in the country is within five consecutive years.
That amendment, which passed out of the House of Commons immigration committee, was removed by Liberal and NDP MPs before the bill was sent to the Senate. The upper chamber rejected an attempt to bring back the change.
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