Canadian citizenship is highly valued globally, providing the right to vote, run for political office, and hold a Canadian passport. However, in 2009, legislative changes amended the Citizenship Act to add a first-generation limit to citizenship by descent.
This means Canadian citizens who were born outside Canada cannot pass on citizenship to their child born outside Canada or apply for a direct grant of citizenship for a child born outside Canada and adopted.
To address this issue, the Honourable Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, introduced legislation that would extend citizenship by descent beyond the first generation.
This legislation would automatically confer Canadian citizenship to persons born abroad to a Canadian parent who is also born abroad prior to the legislation’s coming into force. Parents born abroad who have or adopt children also born outside Canada will need to have spent at least 1,095 cumulative days of physical presence in Canada before their child’s birth or adoption.
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Bill C-71, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2024), would also restore citizenship to “Lost Canadians” and provide citizenship to descendants of “Lost Canadians” and anyone born abroad to a Canadian parent in the second or subsequent generations.
