Canada announces measures to grant citizenship to lost Canadians affected by first-generation limit

Some people can now apply for discretionary grants of Canadian citizenship.

Under interim measures announced today, people in the following situations can apply for a discretionary grant of citizenship:

• Situation 1: People born or adopted before December 19, 2023 who are subject to the first-generation limit.
• Situation 2: People born or adopted on or after December 19, 2023, if their Canadian parent meets the proposed substantial connection to Canada test.
• Situation 3: Some people born before April 1, 1949 who are affected by the first-generation limit.
• Situation 4: People who lost their citizenship due to unmet retention requirements, under the former section 8 of the Citizenship Act.

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Those under Situation 2 “will be offered consideration for a discretionary grant on a prioritized basis.”

Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, announced these measures on March 13, 2025.

The measures come after the delay in passing Bill C-71, An Act to Amend the Citizenship Act (2024).

The federal government introduced Bill C-71 in 2024, as a proposed fix to the “first-generation limit” (FGL) portion of Canada’s Citizenship Act, which the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled unconstitutional in December 2023.

The FGL restricts citizenship by descent. Under the FGL, introduced in 2009, Canadian citizens by descent are incapable of passing on their citizenship by descent.

In other words, if a Canadian was born in Canada, or was naturalized as a Canadian citizen, and has a child who is born outside Canada, that child will gain Canadian citizenship by virtue of having descended from a Canadian citizen.*

But Canadians who themselves have citizenship by descent cannot pass on their citizenship in this way. If a Canadian citizen who gained citizenship by descent upon being born abroad has a child who is born outside Canada, that child does not gain Canadian citizenship at birth.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled the FGL portion of the Citizenship Act as unconstitutional. The Court said that the FGL created a second class of citizen, and violated the prohibition against discrimination on the basis of national origin, enshrined in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The Canadian federal government chose not to appeal the Court’s decision, taking the perspective that the FGL in its current form was undesirable as public policy.

To amend the Citizenship Act and make it constitutional, the government introduced Bill C-71, which removes the FGL in cases where the parent meets a “substantial connection” to Canada test, defined as having spent at least three years (1095 days) physically living in Canada prior to the birth or adoption of their child.

Under the legislation proposed in Bill C-17, Canadian citizens by descent would thus be able to pass on their citizenship to their own children born abroad, provided that the Canadian parent had lived in Canada for at least three years before their child's birth or adoption.

Bill C-71 never became law, and the Superior Court of Justice thrice extended the deadline for the federal government to amend the Citizenship Act—most recently to March 19, 2025.

The government is certain to miss this latest deadline, for Parliament has been prorogued until March 24, 2025.

As part of the same announcement, the federal government requested that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice extend the deadline by an additional 12 months.

If the federal government does not amend the legislation, and the deadline is not extended, the Court may choose to strike down or read down the offending portion of the Citizenship Act, rendering that portion of the legislation inoperative.

*All children born in Canada automatically gain Canadian citizenship at birth, with a few exceptions, such as children of foreign diplomats.

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