Canadian citizenship by descent: the law after Bill C-3 and the 1,095-day rule

Bill C-3 took effect on December 15, 2025. The amended Citizenship Act and IRCC set out who became a citizen and when a parent's three years in Canada decide a child's status.

Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), came into effect on December 15, 2025. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said: "The bill received royal assent on November 20, 2025, and came into effect on December 15, 2025. This means that IRCC now recognizes new eligible citizens and is applying the new rules for passing citizenship on going forward."

The first-generation limit

IRCC describes the old rule this way: "Before Bill C-3 came into effect, Canada’s Citizenship Act limited the passing on of citizenship to the first-generation for people born or adopted abroad."

A court ruling started the change: "On December 19, 2023, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice found that parts of the Citizenship Act relating to the first-generation limit to citizenship by descent were unconstitutional." The agency added: "The Government of Canada did not appeal the decision, recognizing that the law had unacceptable outcomes for Canadians whose children were born outside the country."

Who became a citizen

The backgrounder reads: "Bill C-3 extends access to citizenship to these remaining “Lost Canadians,” their descendants and those born abroad to or adopted abroad by a Canadian parent in the second or later generation before the new law came into effect."

The same document defines the term: "The term “Lost Canadians” refers to people who lost or never obtained citizenship because of certain outdated rules in earlier citizenship laws." Earlier reforms covered most of them: "Most cases were resolved through legislative changes in 2009 and 2015, which restored or gave citizenship to about 20,000 people."

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Children born from December 15, 2025

Section 3(3) of the Citizenship Act opens with: "Paragraph (1)(b) does not apply to a person born outside Canada on or after the day on which An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025) comes into force". One of its conditions reads: "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".

IRCC calls this test a substantial connection: "To demonstrate a substantial connection to Canada, the applicant must show that their Canadian parent born or adopted abroad has at least 1,095 days (three years) of cumulative physical presence in Canada before the applicant’s birth or adoption."

Parents in public service abroad

Section 3(5) sets an exception: "Subsection (3) does not apply to a person (a) born to a parent who, at the time of the person’s birth, was employed outside Canada in or with the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal public administration or the public service of a province, otherwise than as a locally engaged person".

Renunciation

The law also gives a way out to people who did not ask for the new status. IRCC wrote that "people born before December 15, 2025, who automatically became Canadian citizens under the new law and were not previously granted citizenship, and who now want to give up (renounce) Canadian citizenship can apply through a simplified renunciation process".

Murblz experts have compared the rules of 13 countries in citizenship by descent, described Canadian citizenship by birth and the route for adults who live in Canada in Canadian citizenship by naturalization.

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