How Canada’s citizenship by descent law helped one footballer make Canada’s FIFA World Cup squad

England-born football player Alfie Jones became a Canadian citizen last year, and earned a place on Canada's national soccer team – all because of a grandmother born in Hillcrest, Alberta.

For around 16 years, having a Canadian grandparent wasn't enough to pass citizenship down the family line. But Canada’s changed its citizenship by descent laws recently, and Jones's case shows what the shift looks like in practice.

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Jones, 28, is a Bristol-born defender who plays for England's Middlesbrough FC. For most of his career, his Canadian roots were little more than an interesting family footnote. He had always known that his grandmother, on his mother’s side, had grown up in Alberta. But by his own account, he didn't grow up thinking of himself as someone with a claim to Canadian citizenship.

That changed because of a conversation with Canadian midfielder Liam Millar. According to multiple news reports, Jones mentioned his grandmother to Millar almost in passing, when the two had a conversation about Millar missing Canada.

Millar called Canada men's national team head coach Jesse Marsch and told him about Jones's Alberta connection, and that's when the process to confirm his eligibility and pursue Canadian citizenship began.

The federation retained legal counsel and guided him through the steps that follow any citizenship by descent claim. This included assembling family documentation, submitting under the new legislation, completing IRCC review stages, and clearing RCMP fingerprint and criminal database checks.

At that point, Bill C-3, hadn't passed Parliament yet. But Alfie qualified under changes that followed a 2023 Ontario court ruling stating it is unconstitutional to deny citizenship to children born overseas to Canadians also born outside the country

In March 2025, Canada introduced interim discretionary-grant measures for people in Jones's position: those whose Canadian-born grandparent should have made them eligible, but who'd been blocked by the first-generation limit, the rule that, until recently, stopped citizenship from passing to a grandchild born outside Canada.

Jones became a Canadian citizen on November 17, 2025, one day before starting for Canada in a pre-World Cup friendly against Venezuela. In May 2026, Canada Soccer named him to the country's roster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

How having a grandparent born in Canada can make you a citizen too

For years, having a Canadian grandparent or ancestor was a family story, not a legal claim. Canada's first-generation limit, introduced in 2009, blocked citizenship from passing down. This meant a grandchild born outside Canada to parents who were also born outside Canada was unable to claim Canadian citizenship.

In 2023, the Ontario Superior Court ruled the first-generation limit unconstitutional. Canada introduced interim relief measures, then passed Bill C-3 to remove the limit permanently. The law took effect on December 15, 2025.

Together, the changes made millions of Americans potentially eligible to claim citizenship through a Canadian grandparent, great-grandparent, or earlier ancestor.

If one of your grandparents was born in Canada, you may already be a Canadian citizen, even if you and your parents were born abroad and no one in your family has ever held a Canadian passport. You wouldn't need to apply to become a citizen. If you qualify, you already are one, and you'd simply apply for the document that proves it.

What proving it actually takes

Qualifying through a grandparent is one thing. Proving it to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Canada's citizenship department, is another.

Applicants need an unbroken set of official documents connecting them to their Canadian ancestor: their own birth certificate, their parents', and their grandparents' proof of Canadian citizenship, along with any marriage records needed to connect names across generations where a surname has changed.

These documents have to be submitted to IRCC along with a proof of Canadian citizenship application. If successful, applicants will receive a Canadian citizenship certificate, which they can use to apply for a Canadian passport.

For most applicants today, it means requesting vital records from provincial archives, sometimes for ancestors who left Canada generations ago.

You can check where you stand using CanadaVisa's citizenship by descent eligibility checker. For Jones, Canadian ancestry led to a World Cup roster spot. For many others, it leads to a Canadian passport they didn't know they already had a right to.

Get a Free Consultation on Applying for Proof of Canadian Citizenship