If you hail from the Granite State, there is an over-one-in-four chance you now qualify as a dual U.S. – Canadian citizen, and can obtain a Canadian passport.
You could be eligible even if your family has lived entirely in the U.S. for four or more generations, now that Canada has removed the generational limit to inheriting Canadian citizenship.
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The law changed on December 15, 2025: anyone born before that date who can trace their lineage back to a Canadian ancestor — no matter how many generations removed — is legally recognized as a Canadian citizen by descent.
And for New Hampshire residents, the implication is striking. According to U.S. Census Bureau data, New Hampshire has the highest levels of self-reported Canadian ancestry of any U.S. state, at 8.06%.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Between 1840 and 1930, approximately 900,000 French Canadians left the province of Quebec to work in New England. And a large share settled in New Hampshire. Their prevalence was such that New Hampshire mill workers were credited with developing their own dialect of French!
By 1910, 23,000 French-Canadians lived in Manchester alone, accounting for 38% of the city’s population, according to genealogist Kim Kujawski.
A former executive director of the Laconia Historical and Museum Society estimated that the number of French Canadian residents in New Hampshire grew from 1,780 in 1860 to 101,324 in 1930.
It’s due to this mass migration that, today, Canadian ancestry in New Hampshire may sit at or above 30%. According to Ed McGuire, former president of the Vermont Genealogy Library, Vermont is estimated to have 30% Canadian ancestry, and the two states rank nearly equal in self-reported Canadian ancestry, according to data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Today, their American descendants — now several generations removed from New England’s mill towns — can all lay claim to Canadian citizenship.
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What this means for eligible New Hampshire residents
Under Canada’s amended Citizenship Act, New Hampshire residents with even a single Canadian ancestor are legally recognized as Canadian citizens.
That means they can apply for a proof of Canadian citizenship certificate and, once they successfully receive it, apply for a Canadian passport.
To apply for a Canadian citizenship certificate, they must show documentation proving their continuous chain of descent from at least one Canadian ancestor. This can be in the form of birth certificates, baptismal records, marriage certificates or more. Experts such as the former executive director of the Laconia Historical and Museum Society suggest the Roman Catholic Church records as a valuable resource in tracking French-Canadian genealogy.
Collecting this documentation is often the biggest roadblock Americans face in the citizenship-by-descent application process. Quebec’s national archive, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), which holds records more than a century old, has been flooded with requests for certified copies since the new legislation took effect. Because the BAnQ prioritizes requests from local residents, some Americans are turning to Quebec-based immigration lawyers or licensed immigration consultants to navigate the application process
Once this documentation is collected, it can be submitted to Canada’s citizenship department. Most Americans will need to submit paper applications. As of the time of writing, processing time for proof of citizenship applications is 10 months.
After receiving their proof of citizenship certificate, a U.S.-Canadian dual citizen can apply for a Canadian passport. Canadian passport processing currently takes 10–20 business days, with a 30-day money-back guarantee on processing time.
Eligible New Hampshire residents can handle their applications independently, or retain a Canadian immigration lawyer or licensed immigration consultant to manage the process on their behalf.
Get a Free Consultation on Applying for Proof of Canadian Citizenship
*Methodology:
In a 2020 presentation, Patrick White estimates a 20% or greater incidence of Canadian across present-day New England as a whole. In Vermont, the incidence is estimated at 30%, according to Ed McGuire, former president of the Vermont Genealogy Library. Adjusting these estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau data on self-reported Canadian ancestry, New Hampshire residents show a higher incidence than other New England states—suggesting the share could be close to or even exceed 30%.