For those who had been born exterior Canada and one in all your grandparents was Canadian, chances are you’ll be eligible to use for a discretionary grant of Canadian citizenship.
Below interim measures launched by the federal authorities in March of 2025, in case you are affected by Canada’s first-generation restrict (FGL) to citizenship by descent, you’ll be able to submit an internet utility for proof of citizenship.
Schedule a Free Canadian Citizenship Session with the Cohen Immigration
Regulation Agency
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will then assessment your utility and make sure whether or not you might be affected, and if that’s the case, invite you to use to your discretionary grant.
IRCC has an on-line questionnaire you’ll be able to full to see in case you could also be impacted by the FGL.
Be taught extra about the right way to assemble an utility for proof of citizenship, and the right way to apply for pressing processing in case you are eligible.
Why are these measures in place?
Below citizenship by descent, kids born to Canadian mother and father exterior Canada can inherit Canadian citizenship at beginning.
The FGL, first launched to the Citizenship Act in 2009, restricted citizenship by descent to the primary technology, making kids born exterior Canada to Canadian residents by descent unable to inherit Canadian citizenship.
In December of 2023, the Ontario Superior Court docket of Justice dominated the present model of the FGL unconstitutional and instructed the federal authorities to amend the laws previous to the tip of a grace interval.
Regardless of having obtained a number of extensions to the deadline, the federal authorities by no means handed its proposed repair to the FGL, and in March 2025, put in place interim measures to help these affected by the FGL whereas the unconstitutional laws stays in place.
The most recent extension of the grace interval runs to November 20, 2025.
The federal government’s most up-to-date proposed repair, Invoice C-3, an act to amend the Citizenship Act, has entered its report stage within the Home of Commons, having integrated a number of important amendments by the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration.
If the invoice turns into regulation in its present kind, the Citizenship Act will present an exception to the FGL in instances the place the Canadian guardian meets a considerable connection to Canada take a look at, outlined as having spent at the least 1,095 days in Canada throughout any five-year interval previous to the beginning or adoption of their little one.
The proposed adjustments would additionally require citizenship candidates by descent aged 18 years and older to endure a safety verify.
To turn into regulation, the invoice should proceed via three readings in every home of Parliament and obtain royal assent.
Schedule a Free Canadian Citizenship Session with the Cohen Immigration
Regulation Agency
