Following a change in Canada’s citizenship legislation, Matt LeBlanc has turn into as Canadian as his Buddies co-star Matthew Perry, together with hundreds of thousands of People throughout the nation.
Underneath the brand new legislation, which eliminated the generational restrict to inheriting Canadian citizenship, LeBlanc, who starred as Joey Tribbiani in Buddies its spin-off Joey, is now acknowledged as a U.S.-Canadian twin citizen.
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LeBlanc thus joins Matthew Perry, who performed Chandler Bing, who was a U.S.-Canadian twin citizen previous to the citizenship legislation change, having childhood roots within the Canadian province of Ontario.
LeBlanc, who was born in Massachusetts, now holds Canadian citizenship by descent via his father, Paul LeBlanc, who has French-Canadian heritage. Paul’s roots from the Canadian province of New Brunswick are Acadian—the identical cultural heritage, in actual fact, as Louisiana’s “Cajuns,” the ancestors of whom had migrated from the area of present-day New Brunswick to the area of present-day New Orleans earlier than the Louisiana Buy.
LeBlanc’s paternal grandmother, Genevieve Melanson, was born in New Brunswick.
Matt LeBlanc, whose Canadian ancestral surname is French for “white,” is, in line with his IMDb profile, fluent in French, in sharp distinction to Joey, who can not string collectively a single French sentence.
However Canada’s new citizenship legislation is blind to an individual’s cultural heritage. The legislation seems to be solely at ancestry.
Invoice C-3, which got here into impact on December 15, 2025, eliminated the “first-generation restrict” to citizenship by descent for everybody born earlier than that date.
In the present day, hundreds of thousands of People at the moment are simply as Canadian as Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc, together with many U.S. residents whose households have lived totally within the U.S. for 4 or extra generations.
Any American sufficiently old to be studying this as of the time of writing can apply for proof of Canadian citizenship, and procure a Canadian passport, supplied they’ll hint their lineage again to no less than one Canadian ancestor.
Do you will have a declare to a U.S.-Canadian twin citizenship?
Hundreds of thousands of People throughout the nation have the Canadian ancestry wanted to be eligible.
You’ve received greater odds of qualifying if your loved ones tree incorporates French surnames, and/or when you’ve received ancestral ties to New England.
To search out out when you qualify, step one is to map your family tree, based mostly on conversations with relations and your personal analysis.
Upon getting recognized a Canadian ancestor in your loved ones tree – it doesn’t matter what number of generations in the past – the subsequent step could be to gather proof within the type of documentation. Some examples of paperwork which can be accepted in a proof of Canadian citizenship utility are start certificates, baptismal information, and marriage information.
For those who’re one of many many People whose ancestry stretches again to the French-Canadian province of Quebec, then to assist your utility you could have to request official copies of paperwork from Quebec’s registry for important information, the Directeur de l’état civil (DEC), which requires a passable justification of curiosity earlier than it can course of such requests.
You may additionally want paperwork from Quebec’s nationwide archives, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), which retains information older than 100 years, and which has seen demand for licensed copies surge considerably for the reason that new legislation got here into pressure.
Some People are hiring skilled representatives, such as immigration attorneys, who have to be licensed beneath Canadian legislation, each to scale back the chance of errors of their functions, and to speed up the requests for supporting paperwork, as archives such because the BAnQ prioritize requests from native residents.
Upon getting your documentation so as, you may apply to Canada’s citizenship division, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)m for a proof of Canadian citizenship certificates. As of the time of writing, the processing time has just lately doubled to 10 months.
After receiving your proof of Canadian citizenship certificates, you could apply for a Canadian passport, which at the moment outranks the U.S. passport on the Henley Passport Index.
Since each nations acknowledge twin citizenship, U.S.-Canadian twin residents benefit from the full rights and privileges of each citizenships. People who’re Canadian residents by descent have the unconditional proper to dwell and work wherever in Canada, and even have the identical entry to publicly funded healthcare as native-born Canadians in the event that they take up residence.
Acquiring proof of Canadian citizenship and a Canadian passport as an American doesn’t end in any further tax obligations. Not like the U.S., Canada doesn’t apply a worldwide tax on its residents.
For People with Canadian ancestry, twin citizenship affords all upsides, and no downsides.
Like Chandler Bing himself might need put it: Might this BE any extra Canadian?
To examine whether or not you could be eligible for Canadian citizenship by descent, go to CanadaVisa’s citizenship by descent calculator. For assist together with your proof of citizenship utility, contact Cohen Immigration Legislation.
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