England-born soccer participant Alfie Jones turned a Canadian citizen final 12 months, and earned a spot on Canada’s nationwide soccer staff – all due to a grandmother born in Hillcrest, Alberta.
For round 16 years, having a Canadian grandparent wasn’t sufficient to go citizenship down the household line. However Canada’s modified its citizenship by descent legal guidelines not too long ago, and Jones’s case exhibits what the shift seems to be like in observe.
Get a Free Session on Making use of for Proof of Canadian Citizenship
Jones, 28, is a Bristol-born defender who performs for England’s Middlesbrough FC. For many of his profession, his Canadian roots have been little greater than an attention-grabbing household footnote. He had at all times recognized that his grandmother, on his mom’s aspect, had grown up in Alberta. However by his personal account, he did not develop up pondering of himself as somebody with a declare to Canadian citizenship.
That modified due to a dialog with Canadian midfielder Liam Millar. In keeping with a number of information experiences, Jones talked about his grandmother to Millar virtually in passing, when the 2 had a dialog about Millar lacking Canada.
Millar referred to as Canada males’s nationwide staff head coach Jesse Marsch and instructed him about Jones’s Alberta connection, and that is when the method to substantiate his eligibility and pursue Canadian citizenship started.
The federation retained authorized counsel and guided him via the steps that observe any citizenship by descent declare. This included assembling household documentation, submitting beneath the brand new laws, finishing IRCC evaluation levels, and clearing RCMP fingerprint and felony database checks.
At that time, Invoice C-3, hadn’t handed Parliament but. However Alfie certified beneath modifications that adopted a 2023 Ontario courtroom ruling stating it’s unconstitutional to disclaim citizenship to kids born abroad to Canadians additionally born outdoors the nation
In March 2025, Canada launched interim discretionary-grant measures for individuals in Jones’s place: these whose Canadian-born grandparent ought to have made them eligible, however who’d been blocked by the first-generation restrict, the rule that, till not too long ago, stopped citizenship from passing to a grandchild born outdoors Canada.
Jones turned a Canadian citizen on November 17, 2025, someday earlier than beginning for Canada in a pre-World Cup pleasant towards Venezuela. In Could 2026, Canada Soccer named him to the nation’s roster for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
How having a grandparent born in Canada could make you a citizen too
For years, having a Canadian grandparent or ancestor was a household story, not a authorized declare. Canada’s first-generation restrict, launched in 2009, blocked citizenship from passing down. This meant a grandchild born outdoors Canada to folks who have been additionally born outdoors Canada was unable to say Canadian citizenship.
In 2023, the Ontario Superior Courtroom dominated the first-generation restrict unconstitutional. Canada launched interim aid measures, then handed Invoice C-3 to take away the restrict completely. The regulation took impact on December 15, 2025.
Collectively, the modifications made thousands and thousands of People doubtlessly eligible to say citizenship via a Canadian grandparent, great-grandparent, or earlier ancestor.
If one in every of your grandparents was born in Canada, you might already be a Canadian citizen, even in the event you and your dad and mom have been born overseas and nobody in your loved ones has ever held a Canadian passport. You would not want to use to turn into a citizen. If you happen to qualify, you already are one, and also you’d merely apply for the doc that proves it.
What proving it really takes
Qualifying via a grandparent is one factor. Proving it to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), Canada’s citizenship division, is one other.
Candidates want an unbroken set of official paperwork connecting them to their Canadian ancestor: their very own start certificates, their dad and mom’, and their grandparents’ proof of Canadian citizenship, together with any marriage data wanted to attach names throughout generations the place a surname has modified.
These paperwork should be submitted to IRCC together with a proof of Canadian citizenship utility. If profitable, candidates will obtain a Canadian citizenship certificates, which they will use to use for a Canadian passport.
For many candidates at the moment, it means requesting very important data from provincial archives, typically for ancestors who left Canada generations in the past.
You may examine the place you stand utilizing CanadaVisa’s citizenship by descent eligibility checker. For Jones, Canadian ancestry led to a World Cup roster spot. For a lot of others, it results in a Canadian passport they did not know they already had a proper to.
Get a Free Session on Making use of for Proof of Canadian Citizenship
