Parliament passes bill to grant citizenship to lost Canadians

Thousands of children of Canadians stand to gain citizenship.

Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), has passed its third reading in the Senate as of Nov 19, 2025, and is expected to become law after receiving royal assent.

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The bill will grant citizenship to individuals affected by Canada’s first-generation limit to citizenship by descent.

Under citizenship by descent, children by birth or adoption of one or more Canadian parents can inherit Canadian citizenship when born outside Canada.

The current iteration of the Citizenship Act, in place since 2009, limits citizenship by descent to the first generation, preventing children of Canadian citizens by descent from inheriting citizenship by descent. This limitation is known as the first-generation limit (FGL).

Upon coming into force, Bill C-3 will restore Canadian citizenship to all lost Canadians currently affected by the FGL.

The bill will also provide an exception to the FGL moving forward: after the bill comes into force, children of Canadian citizens by descent will be able to inherit Canadian citizenship at birth or adoption provided that their Canadian parent passes a substantial connection to Canada test, defined as having spent at least 1,095 days in Canada prior to the birth or adoption of the child.

Once the bill receives royal assent, it will come into force on the day established by the Governor General.

The amendments have been a long time coming.

The current form of the FGL was declared unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in December 2023, since which time the court has established and extended multiple deadlines for the federal government to amend the Citizenship Act.

Most recently, the court extended the deadline from Nov 20, 2025, to January 20, 2026.

In the bill's third reading in the Senate, the Senate rejected a proposed amendment that would have established a stricter version of the substantial connection to Canada test—namely, requiring that the Canadian parent's 1,095 days of physical presence have been accumulated within a five-year time period.

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