Changes to Canada’s citizenship laws are now in effect after the federal government passed legislation that sought to fix gaps that led to so-called “Lost Canadians.”
The new rules under Bill C-3, which became law last month, will now allow Canadian citizenship to be passed down to people born or adopted abroad beyond the first generation, under certain conditions.
Immigration Minister Lena Diab said Monday that the changes to the Citizenship Act “reflect how Canadian families live today,” allowing Canadians who are living, travelling or studying abroad to ensure their children are able to become citizens themselves.
Here’s what to know about the changes.
What are the new rules?
As of Monday, Dec. 15, people born or adopted abroad to a Canadian parent who was also born or adopted in another country can have citizenship passed down to them.
In order for a person to qualify, their parent must have spent at least three cumulative years (1,095 days) in Canada before the child’s birth or adoption to prove a “substantial connection” to the country.
Children born outside Canada before Dec. 15 who are second generation or later will be granted automatic Canadian citizenship. Those adopted before that date can now apply for citizenship and have their applications considered under the new rules.
Anyone automatically granted Canadian citizenship under the new rules who wishes to renounce it can do so under the legislation by applying “through a simplified renunciation process,” the government says.
How did we get here?
In 2009, the Conservative federal government changed the Citizenship Act so that Canadians born abroad could only pass down their citizenship if their child was born or adopted in Canada.
That meant the passing down of citizenship ended after the first generation if a citizen born in Canada passed it onto their child born or adopted outside the country.
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The first-generation limit created so-called “Lost Canadians” who had family connections to the country but could not themselves become citizens.
The limit was deemed unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court in December 2023.
The Liberal government did not appeal the decision, “recognizing that the law had unacceptable outcomes for Canadians whose children were born outside the country,” a Monday release from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said.
A previous effort to amend the Citizenship Act to respond to the court’s ruling died in Parliament when it was dissolved early this year to trigger the federal election.
The government approved an interim measure after the court ruling allowing people affected by the first-generation limit to apply for a “discretionary grant of citizenship.”
IRCC says people who applied under the interim measure do not need to apply again if their application is still in progress. Those applications will now be considered under the new rules.
Do concerns remain?
Saskatchewan Sen. David Arnot argued during the bill’s consideration in the Senate last month that it unfairly applies the three-year “substantial connection” test to intercountry adoptees, which are adopted children born abroad and raised in Canada by Canadian parents.
Arnot did not seek to amend the legislation in order to allow its swift passage, but urged the government to make the change in future legislation.
Immigration lawyers Sujit Choudhry and Maureen Silcoff have been retained by parents of intercountry adoptees for a potential Charter challenge, arguing these adoptees should not be treated differently than children adopted in Canada.
In an interview, Choudhry said the new rules violate the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, an international treaty that Canada is a signatory to, because domestic adoptees do not need to meet the same connection test.
Even parents like his client Kat Lanteigne, who was born and raised in Canada and adopted her child from Zambia, would be subject to the same rules because they travelled abroad to complete the adoption, he explained.
The new rules not only impose a travel or movement barrier on intercountry adoptees’ families, Choudhry said, but also create “a kind of a symbolic harm that comes from subjecting these intercountry adoptees to a different kind of set of rules.”
“It’s already not easy to be adopted from halfway around the world,” he said, noting these children go through a rigorous immigration process before their adoption in Canada is finalized.
Choudhry, who brought the case on behalf of “Lost Canadians” that led to the 2023 ruling and ultimately Bill C-3, wouldn’t rule out pursuing additional legislative amendments and a Charter challenge simultaneously.
“I think we’re going to do both,” he said.
“For those families (of “Lost Canadians”), of course, C-3 is a victory. It’s vindication of what they went to court to fight for, and some of them have been fighting for many years. But the problem is that the battle is not over.”
Conservatives, meanwhile, sought to amend what it called the “chain migration” legislation by ensuring the cumulative three years of time a Canadian parent must spend in the country is within five consecutive years.
That amendment, which passed out of the House of Commons immigration committee, was removed by Liberal and NDP MPs before the bill was sent to the Senate. The upper chamber rejected an attempt to bring back the change.
The Conservatives have pointed to a Parliamentary Budget Officer report on last year’s legislation that estimated the Citizenship Act amendments would affect 115,000 people and cost $20.8 million over five years.
The party referred to previous statements from October criticizing the bill when asked for comment on the new rules Monday.
—With files from the Canadian Press
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