Canada plans citizenship rejig; Indian-origin families to benefit

25 NOVEMBER 2025

Bill C-3, an Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), has received royal assent.
“Once the new law comes into force, Canadian citizenship will be provided to people born before the Bill comes into force, who would have been citizens if not for the first-generation limit or other outdated rules of past legislation”, the news release said.
On December 19, 2023, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice declared that key parts of the Citizenship Act relating to the first-generation limit to citizenship by descent were unconstitutional.
The first-generation limit to Canadian citizenship by descent was introduced in 2009. It means that a child born or adopted outside Canada is not a Canadian citizen by descent if their Canadian parent was also born or adopted outside Canada.
This limit caused problems for many Indian-origin Canadians whose children were born out of the country, people who know the matter say.
The new law will also allow a Canadian parent born or adopted abroad to pass citizenship on to their child born or adopted outside Canada on or after the date the Bill comes into force, provided they have a substantial connection to Canada, the release said.