Canada is planning to update its citizenship rules, which could help thousands of people with Indian roots and many other Canadians who were born outside the country.
Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab said the new law, called Bill C-3, will fix long-standing problems in Canada’s citizenship system and make it fairer for families with children born or adopted abroad. She said the changes will give citizenship to people who were left out before and set clearer rules for the future.
Right now, a rule from 2009 says that a child born outside Canada can only become a citizen automatically if one parent was born or naturalized in Canada. But in December 2023, an Ontario court said this rule was unconstitutional. The federal government agreed with the ruling and did not appeal it.
Because of the old rule, some people — often called “lost Canadians” — believed they should be citizens but were denied.
Bill C-3 will give citizenship back to those affected and create a new requirement called a “substantial connection test.” This means a Canadian parent who was born abroad can pass on citizenship to their child if they have lived in Canada for at least 1,095 days (about three years) before the child’s birth or adoption. This is similar to rules in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
A court has extended the deadline for putting the new rules in place to January 2026, giving the government time to prepare. Immigration lawyers expect many new citizenship applications once the process opens.
The Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association supports the changes.
Canada’s citizenship laws have caused problems in the past. The first Citizenship Act in 1947 led some people to lose or miss out on citizenship. Changes in 2009 and 2015 helped restore citizenship for many — about 20,000 people proved their status. But the 2009 rule about children born abroad created new issues, and the 2023 court ruling finally struck it down.
