After Canada’s citizenship law changed on December 15, 2025, millions of Americans are waking up to the reality that they are also Canadian citizens.
If your spouse is one of them, through their ancestry, they can apply for proof of Canadian citizenship. If Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) confirms their citizenship, they’ll receive a citizenship certificate.
Get a Free Consultation on Applying for Proof of Canadian Citizenship
As Canadian citizens, they have all the rights that come with citizenship, including being able to apply for a Canadian passport, and to live, work and travel in Canada freely. The certificate proves that status.
That raises the question: what about you?
Here’s what you need to know as the spouse of a Canadian citizen by descent.
Can I claim Canadian citizenship through my spouse, a Canadian citizen by descent?
Unfortunately, that’s not how citizenship by descent works.
Canadian citizenship by descent is based on being born to or adopted by a Canadian parent. It isn’t acquired through marriage.
That means even though your spouse is now a Canadian citizen, that status doesn’t automatically extend to you.
However, it does give you more options.
It may also mean that children you share with your spouse are also Canadian citizens by descent, though that depends on some factors (more on this below).
How does Canadian citizenship by descent give a spouse more options?
While you don’t automatically become a Canadian citizen, your spouse — now a Canadian citizen — may be able to sponsor you for Canadian permanent resident status, if they meet the requirements to do so.
As a permanent resident (PR) of Canada, you get most of the benefits available to Canadian citizens, including:
- The ability to live, work or study anywhere in Canada.
- Access to most social benefits that Canadian citizens receive.
- Protection under Canadian law and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
That said, PRs have to meet a residency obligation, generally, at least 730 days of physical presence in Canada out of every five years to keep their status.
Most importantly, becoming a PR also gives you the ability to apply for Canadian citizenship once you meet the requirements, which generally include:
- At least 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada during the five years before you apply, including at least 730 days as a permanent resident.
- Filing Canadian income taxes for at least three of those five years, if you’re required to file.
- Depending on your age, proving your language ability, passing the citizenship test, and taking the oath of citizenship.
Are all Canadian citizens by descent eligible to sponsor their spouses?
Not automatically. To sponsor a spouse, partner or child, a Canadian citizen generally has to:
- Be at least 18 years old.
- Be living in Canada, or show that they plan to live in Canada once you (their spouse) become a permanent resident.
- Commit to supporting you financially.
A number of things can also disqualify someone from sponsoring. Examples include certain past violent convictions, being in default on a previous sponsorship undertaking, incarceration, being on social assistance for reasons other than disability, or having an active removal order.
If your spouse lives in, or is planning to live in, Quebec, they’ll also need to meet Quebec’s own sponsorship requirements.
Do I need to meet any criteria to be sponsored, as a spouse?
You and any family members included in the application need to pass background and security checks, and a medical exam.
Past criminal convictions can also affect your admissibility, depending on the offence, how long ago it happened, and whether you’ve since been granted a record suspension or rehabilitation.
Common law and conjugal partners
You don’t need to be married to qualify. Canada also recognizes common-law and conjugal partners.
A common-law partner is someone who has lived with their partner in a marriage-like relationship for at least 12 consecutive months.
A conjugal partner is someone outside Canada who has been in an exclusive, mutually interdependent relationship with the sponsor for at least a year, but can’t live together or marry because of legal, immigration, social, cultural or religious barriers.
Canadian citizens are able to sponsor spouses, as well as conjugal and common-law partners.
What about our children?
Any children you share with your spouse who is a Canadian citizen by descent may also be Canadian citizens, through the same line of descent.
If your child was born outside Canada before December 15, 2025, Bill C-3 may have restored their citizenship. IRCC says that in most cases, people born outside Canada before that date to a Canadian parent are automatically citizens, including children of a parent who became Canadian through the rule change.
For children born outside Canada on or after December 15, 2025, the rules are different. If your spouse was also born outside Canada, they generally need to show at least 1,095 cumulative days of physical presence in Canada before your child’s birth or adoption for citizenship to pass on, unless an exception applies.
If you have a child from a previous relationship with a non-Canadian, they wouldn’t automatically become Canadian through your current spouse. Your spouse may still be able to sponsor that child for PR, generally if the child is under 22, though older children can sometimes qualify if they’ve depended on a parent financially since before turning 22 because of a disability.
Next steps
If your spouse just found out they may qualify for Canadian citizenship by descent, they can’t offer to sponsor you right away.
Before sponsoring, your spouse will need acceptable proof of Canadian citizenship, like a citizenship certificate.
As of time of writing, IRCC’s proof-of-citizenship certificate processing time was listed as about 19 months, but this is subject to change and can be longer for some applications.
For people newly recognized through Bill C-3, here’s what they need to do to apply for a citizenship certificate first.
- Gather documents for every generation in the family line. This includes birth, marriage or adoption records connecting them to their Canadian parent, grandparent or earlier ancestor, depending on how far back the citizenship claim goes. Each document needs to come from the original issuing authority, such as a provincial vital statistics office.
- Complete and submit the application form. This means filling out the paper Application for a Citizenship Certificate (CIT 0001), along with any additional forms that apply to their situation, such as a name-change document if their name has changed since birth. Applications need to include the required photographs and identification.
The first step is confirming your spouse’s eligibility. CanadaVisa’s citizenship by descent eligibility checker is where to start, and a lawyer can help map out both the certificate and any sponsorship that follows.
Get a Free Consultation on Applying for Proof of Canadian Citizenship