By birth
Born in Canada
Almost everyone born on Canadian soil is a citizen from birth.
How it works
Citizenship by descent, explained plainly
Canada treats the children of its citizens as citizens, even when they are born somewhere else. Since December 15, 2025, that can carry across more than one generation. Here is how the rule works, and where its limits are.
The basic idea
You don't become a citizen. You find out that you are one.
Most routes to Canadian status ask the government for something: a permit, permanent residence, a grant of citizenship. Descent works differently. The Citizenship Act says who is a citizen. If it describes you, you have been one since birth, whether or not anyone has checked.
What you apply for is a citizenship certificate. It doesn't give you citizenship. It records that you have it, and it is the document the passport office asks for.
By descent
Born abroad to a Canadian parent
Citizenship passes through the family line. This is the route this site is about.
By grant
Naturalized
An immigrant applies for and is granted citizenship, usually after years as a permanent resident.
What changed
The first-generation limit, and its end.
From April 2009, citizenship by descent stopped at the first generation born outside Canada. If your Canadian parent was born abroad too, you were generally not a citizen, however strong the family's ties to Canada.
In December 2023 an Ontario court found that limit unconstitutional. Parliament responded with Bill C-3, which received royal assent on November 20, 2025 and came into force on December 15, 2025.
The new law draws one line, at the date it took effect.
Born before December 15, 2025
No generation limit
If you were born outside Canada to a parent who was a Canadian citizen, including a parent who is a citizen because of this same change, you are likely a citizen too. That holds in the second generation born abroad and later.
Born on or after December 15, 2025
The 1,095-day rule
A child born outside Canada to a Canadian parent who was also born outside Canada is a citizen if that parent spent at least 1,095 days in Canada before the child's birth.
- Great-grandparent Born in Canada CitizenCitizen
- Grandparent First generation born abroad CitizenCitizen
- Parent Second generation born abroad Usually cut offCitizen
- You Third generation born abroad Not a citizenCitizen
A simplified picture for people born before December 15, 2025. Every real line is checked against the rules in force at each birth.
The conditions
What has to be true for a line to hold.
The law removed a limit. It did not remove the need for an unbroken, provable chain.
- A Canadian at the start. Someone in your direct line was a Canadian citizen, either born in Canada or naturalized there.
- Parent to child, every step. Each person between them and you is the child of the one before. Aunts, uncles and cousins don't carry the line.
- A citizen at the time of birth. Each parent was a citizen when the next generation was born. A parent naturalized after a child's birth does not pass citizenship to that child.
- No break in the chain. Nobody in the line had renounced their citizenship, or had it revoked, before the next generation was born.
- Documents for every link. Each of those facts can be shown with records that exist or can be found.
Adoption and older lines. A person adopted abroad by a Canadian is not automatically a citizen, and applies under a separate process. Lines that begin before January 1, 1947, when Canadian citizenship became a legal status, fall under older rules and later corrections. Both need individual advice from a licensed representative.
In practice
Three examples.
Invented illustrations of how the rules apply. Real family lines are rarely this tidy.
Example: a grandparent born in Canada
Second generation born abroad
Maya was born in Manila in 1994. Her mother was born there too, to a father born in Winnipeg in 1938. Under the old limit, Maya was left out. Under today's law she is likely a citizen. The work is proving three births and the links between them.
Example: a parent who became Canadian
The date that decides it
Daniel's father became a Canadian citizen in 1988 and later moved abroad. Daniel was born in 1992, after that date, so he is a citizen by descent. His sister, born in 1985 before their father's citizenship, is not a citizen through him.
Example: a child born after the change
The 1,095-day rule
Priya was born in Lisbon in 2026 to a Canadian mother who was also born abroad. Priya is a citizen only if her mother spent at least 1,095 days in Canada before the birth. Proof of that time is part of the file.
Official sources
Read it from the government.
Everything on this page is general information drawn from Government of Canada sources, last checked in October 2026. The law is detailed and the official pages are the authority.
Your own line
See where yours stands.
The eligibility check asks about your family line and gives you a preliminary result in about two minutes. It is free, and you see the result before we ask for any contact details.
Start here
Find out where your family line leads.
The check is free and takes about two minutes. If your line doesn't qualify, we'll tell you so.