You have a document for every generation, from your Canadian ancestor down to you. What you may not know is that IRCC counts some of them for far more than others, and a single generation resting on the wrong kind can sink the whole claim.
Officers at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) do not classify all submitted documentation in citizenship by descent applications in the same way.
Canada’s citizenship department sorts evidence into two tiers: primary and secondary—but rarely spells out where different documents fit in this framework.
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Despite this, knowing the difference between primary and secondary evidence, and what kind of documents fit into each, can be quite consequential for citizenship by descent applicants.
For example, if your chain has a generation covered by secondary evidence alone, IRCC can find that generation unproven. The application does not fail on volume. It fails on the weight that IRCC gives each kind of document.
Where the two tiers come from
IRCC named them in a slide deck the department presented to the Association of Canadian Archivists (ACA) in the summer of 2026. The ACA released the slides to its members with IRCC’s permission.
Primary documents are the ones IRCC says you must provide, one or more for each ancestor in your chain.
Secondary documents are the ones IRCC says it may consider as part of a submission. The distance between “must provide” and “may consider” is the whole distinction.
Per IRCC’s slide deck, an immigration officer must assess all relevant evidence an applicant provides with their application.
Note that primary and secondary in this regard have to do with evidentiary weight and not the document source. An original document could be from the source authority, but could still be considered a “secondary” document under this framework (explained in greater detail below)
IRCC’s June change to citizenship by descent guidelines was about source. IRCC now wants each record to come from the original authority. It still does not require you to certify it.
What counts as primary evidence?
For each ancestor between you and your Canadian relative, IRCC asks for one or more of these, issued by the original authority that created or keeps the record:
- A Canadian provincial or territorial birth certificate
- A birth certificate from another country showing the parent-child relationship in that generation
- A Canadian citizenship or naturalization certificate
- A Certificate of Registration of Birth Abroad, or a Certificate of Retention of Canadian Citizenship
- A British naturalization certificate issued in Canada or Newfoundland and Labrador
- Proof of British subject status before January 1, 1947, or April 1, 1949 for Newfoundland and Labrador
- Proof of landed immigrant status in Canada before January 1, 1947, or April 1, 1949, for Newfoundland and Labrador
What counts as secondary evidence?
The second tier runs longer and includes:
- Hospital records of birth
- Records from a physician or midwife who witnessed a birth
- Baptismal certificates and records
- Census records
- Canada Gazette records
- Boat manifests
- Marriage records
- Death records
- Immigration records, including homestead records
- Military records
- Passports
IRCC’s slide deck states that the secondary list is not exhaustive.
Note that “secondary” in this context is not the same as third-party. IRCC says an application cannot rest on third-party records alone, and names printouts from genealogy sites and biographies as its examples.
For example, your great-grandfather‘s baptismal record, issued by the Quebec diocese that keeps the register, is a secondary document from the original authority. A screenshot of that same record from a subscription genealogy site is a third-party record. The source of a document remains a critical consideration and is explicitly mentioned in IRCC’s guidance after the department tightened its rules in June 2026.
Baptismal records sitting in the second tier will matter to anyone tracing a line through Quebec, where parish registers served as the civil register until 1994.
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What to do when you can’t get a primary document
Where you cannot obtain a primary document, there are still steps that you can take which follow IRCC guidance and can help strengthen your application.
The first is substitution. Secondary records from the original authority can carry part of the weight a birth certificate would have carried. These are not replacements for a primary document outright, and an officer will not treat them as equivalent; however, they still beat an empty generation. A gap with nothing in it gives an officer nothing to weigh.
The second is submitting proof of the search for the primary document. IRCC states that an applicant who cannot source an original record must demonstrate in writing what efforts they made and explain why the record cannot be provided. Skip that and your secondary evidence reads as a shortcut rather than a last resort.
Per the ACA’s summary of the question period, IRCC told the association that a formal or certified “No Record Found” letter is not required. Email correspondence with an archive, or documentation showing the result of a search, will suffice. That point comes from the association’s write-up of the verbal session rather than the slides.
Most archives and vital statistics offices issue a no-record letter as their standard response to a failed search, so you may receive one without asking. If you hold it, include it. It documents the attempt better than a forwarded email thread.
What an officer is deciding
IRCC decides these claims on a balance of probabilities. An officer weighs everything you submit and asks whether your claim is more likely to be true than not. In this sense, you are not passing a checklist, but rather building a case, generation by generation.
For your claim to be accepted and you to be issued a Canadian citizenship certificate (the document that entitles you to a passport), the IRCC officer must believe that it is at least more likely than not that your claim is viable, and that the documentary evidence you have provided is sufficient to support this.
Retaining an experienced citizenship lawyer can be very valuable here, as they understand how IRCC officers weigh these files.
Sort your own documents into the tiers
Go generation by generation, from your Canadian ancestor down to you. For each ancestor, you can assess what supporting documentation you have, and which tier they fit in. Most applicants land in one of five places.
Sufficient. Every generation has a primary document from the original authority, and the names and dates match across them. Prepare the application.
Potentially useful. Primary documents cover multiple generations, with secondary records from the original authority available for all ancestors. Check that no generation rests on secondary evidence alone.
Missing a link. One generation is covered by a genealogy-site printout. Order the original from the office that created or keeps it before you file.
Requires further verification. You hold the records, but a name or date shifts between them. Marie on one act, Mary on the next. A birth year that moves by three. Bridge the gap with a marriage certificate, a name-change record, or a written explanation.
Requires legal review. The chain breaks somewhere you cannot source. A lost naturalization certificate. A generation with no surviving record. An ancestor whose Canadian status you cannot confirm.
Four mistakes that weaken a file
- Treating the discovery document as proof. The census page that told you your ancestor was in Canada is secondary evidence. It rarely carries a generation by itself.
- Downloading rather than ordering. Applicants pull a record from a genealogy site when the archive that holds the original will send the same record.
- Leaving a gap unexplained. Where you cannot obtain a primary document, IRCC wants a written explanation of why, plus proof you tried (as detailed above).
- Assuming more paper means more weight. IRCC publishes no formula, and no officer has said two secondary records equal one primary. Reading the deck’s language against the standard IRCC applies, a generation resting on one secondary document asks an officer to accept more on less. Records that corroborate each other, a baptismal act and a marriage certificate naming the same parents, give that officer more to work with.
Certification, and the tension behind it
Slide 9 of IRCC’s slide deck states in bold that documents do not need to be certified. That said, an officer may request a certified copy where they have concerns about whether a document is authentic.
When compared against IRCC’s raised documentary standard, those two moves look contradictory.
The two fit together once you separate the source from certification. June’s change was about where a document comes from, not whether a copy carries a stamp. However, the theme of greater scrutiny on documentation still stands—as a result, citizenship by descent applicants are likely better off opting to get their documents certified before submitting their application than not.
Due to growing wait times around proof of citizenship processing and to obtain certified supporting documents, some applicants may want to consider submitting their application prior to obtaining all primary documents. It should be noted that while this is permissible (as long as applications pass completeness checks), it is not regular practice and carries risks if an application cannot be updated before processing begins.
Find out if you qualify for Canadian citizenship by descent using CanadaVisa’s free citizenship by descent eligibility checker.
The ACA has noted that the information in IRCC’s presentation may change. Check IRCC’s official webpages for current requirements before submitting.
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