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What Is Canadian Citizenship by Descent?

Written by Immigration Pros editorial team · Reviewed by Galo Castillo, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant practicing with Immigration Pros Inc. · CICC licence R408519 · Published September 4, 2026 · Last reviewed September 14, 2026

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Canadian citizenship by descent means you are already a Canadian citizen because a parent or grandparent was Canadian — not because you were born in Canada. You do not apply to become a citizen. You apply for a citizenship certificate, the document that proves the status you already have.

The whole process, start to finish: check which rule applies to your family → gather the birth, marriage and citizenship records for every generation → file with IRCC, online or on paper depending on your case → wait for the certificate. No test, no oath, no move to Canada, no giving up your current passport. The waiting is long and the paperwork is where people lose years, so most families have the chain checked before anything is filed.

What IRCC needs to see: a birth certificate for every person in the chain showing the parents’ names, proof that your Canadian ancestor was a citizen, and a document explaining any name that changed along the way. The wrong version of a certificate is the most common reason a file comes back.

IRCC’s published wait is 33 months, and a file sent back for one wrong document does not lose weeks — it starts that wait again.

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The short answers

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What is Canadian citizenship by descent?

Canadian citizenship by descent means you may already be a Canadian citizen without ever having applied for one. It happens when you are born outside Canada and a parent, a grandparent or even a great-grandparent was a Canadian citizen: what makes you Canadian is who your family is, not where you were born. The law may have made you a citizen on the day you were born — as long as each generation in between met the rules that applied at the time.

Nobody hands you that status, and filling in a form does not create it. That is the part most people find surprising: you are not asking Canada to make you a citizen. You are asking IRCC to confirm what is already true, and to give you the document that proves it.

So “Canadian citizen by descent” describes how you became a citizen, not a lesser class of citizenship. A citizen by descent has the same rights as a citizen born in Canada: the same passport, the same right to enter and live in Canada, the same right to vote. The one thing that differs is what you can pass on to a child born abroad, which is exactly what the rules below govern.

Two consequences follow, and they explain most of what makes these files difficult:

A parent who never held a Canadian passport or certificate may still have been a citizen their whole life. The documents are how citizenship is proven, not how it is acquired.
Your case depends on dates. Because citizenship starts at birth, what counts is the law in force when each person in your family was born — plus the later changes that gave citizenship back to people the old rules had left out. Bill C-3, in December 2025, is the newest of those.

What did Bill C-3 change on December 15, 2025?

In one sentence: before December 15, 2025, citizenship by descent stopped at the first generation born outside Canada. A child born abroad to a parent who was also born abroad did not become a citizen. Bill C-3 removed that cut-off, so grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Canadians can now qualify where they could not before.

The wording matters. IRCC says the law “removed this limit in some situations” — not in all of them. Whether it reaches you depends on your date of birth and on your parent’s circumstances. Nothing was taken away: anyone who was already a citizen still is.

The two rules side by side, and the date that separates them:

Before

The first-generation limit

Citizenship by descent stopped at the first generation born outside Canada. A child born abroad to a parent who was also born abroad did not become a citizen, whatever the family records showed.

Some people were refused a citizenship certificate under this rule.

After

The limit removed — in some situations

IRCC’s own wording is that Bill C-3 “removed this limit in some situations” — not in every situation. Whether it reaches your generation depends on your date of birth and on your parent’s circumstances.

It does not affect anyone who was already a Canadian citizen before the law came into force.

Born before Dec 15, 2025

In most cases a citizen automatically. No physical-presence test applies to you or to your parent.

Born on or after Dec 15, 2025

Where the Canadian parent was born or adopted outside Canada, that parent must show 1,095 days in Canada before the birth — form CIT 0555.

How to find out where you stand

IRCC decides. If you think Bill C-3 made you a citizen, the way to know for sure is to apply for a citizenship certificate.

What Bill C-3 changed on December 15, 2025. The first-generation limit was removed in some situations — and your date of birth decides which rule applies to you.

The full timeline, if you want it

The rule that applies to you depends on when you were born, so the dates matter. This is IRCC’s own chronology:

DateWhat changed
January 1, 1947Canada’s first Citizenship Act came into force. Before that date there were no Canadian citizens in law. The Act also contained provisions that caused some people to lose citizenship based on gender and marital status, place of birth or naturalization status.
February 15, 1977A new Citizenship Act came into force, allowing dual citizenship and letting a child born abroad claim citizenship regardless of the parent’s gender or marital status.
April 17, 2009Bill C-37 restored citizenship to many "Lost Canadians", reaching back to January 1, 1947 — and introduced the first-generation limit on citizenship by descent.
June 11, 2015Bill C-24 extended citizenship to Lost Canadians born before January 1, 1947 and to their children born in the first generation abroad.
December 15, 2025Bill C-3 removed the first-generation limit in some situations, and introduced the 1,095-day connection test for births and adoptions from that date onward.

Source: IRCC — Chronology of Lost Canadians and Changes to citizenship rules 2009 to 2015. No change has ever taken citizenship away from someone who already held it — Bill C-3 included.

Were you refused before December 2025?

That decision was made under rules that no longer exist. It does not carry over, and it does not stop you — but nobody at IRCC will write to tell you that. The only way to get a current answer is a new application, and your old decision letter is evidence for it. Keep it.

Every month that letter stays in a drawer is another month added to the queue on the other side — and that queue has not shortened once this year.

Have us look at the refusal — free

Who qualifies for Canadian citizenship by descent in 2026?

One date separates two sets of rules, and nearly everyone applying today falls into the first group.

Born before December 15, 2025

IRCC’s own wording is that in most cases you are automatically a Canadian citizen if you were born outside Canada, before December 15, 2025, to a Canadian parent. No physical-presence test is applied to you, and none is applied to your parent for this purpose. That includes some people whose parent became Canadian only because of the 2025 changes. “Automatically” describes the status, not the paperwork: you still have to apply for a certificate for IRCC to confirm it.

Born on or after December 15, 2025

If you were born in the second generation or later on or after that date, an additional condition applies to your parent. Where your Canadian parent was themselves born or adopted outside Canada, that parent must have spent at least 1,095 days in Canada before your birth — the substantial connection requirement. How that test works, and how the days are proved, is set out further down.

The most common misreading

The 1,095 days belong to your parent, not to you, and only where this second rule applies. You are not required to have spent a single day in Canada.

You were bornWhat has to be true · What follows
Before Dec 15, 2025
What has to be true:
A Canadian parent, and a documented parent-child relationship at every generation back to the Canadian ancestor.
What follows:
In most cases a citizen automatically, with no 1,095-day test applied. A certificate application is how IRCC confirms it.
On or after Dec 15, 2025
What has to be true:
Where the Canadian parent was born or adopted outside Canada, that parent must have 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada before your birth.
What follows:
The days must be calculated and evidenced. The requirement is set out in IRCC’s 2025 citizenship rules.

One date on the wrong side of that line changes which rule governs your whole family, and IRCC will not point it out until it decides. Start your free assessment — we read your family line before anything is filed, not after it comes back.

How does citizenship pass from one generation to the next?

Citizenship passes down like a chain: one link at a time, parent to child. Every link has to be proven with official documents. The diagram below follows a single family — Canadian grandparent, parent born abroad, you — and names the record that proves each step.

1

Grandparent

A Canadian citizen — by birth in Canada, by naturalization, or by another recognized route.

Proven with

A Canadian birth certificate, or a citizenship or naturalization certificate.

Where the line starts, not where the claim is made.

2

Your parent

Born outside Canada to that Canadian grandparent. Your parent may already have been Canadian — or became Canadian under the 2025 changes.

Proven with

A birth certificate naming the Canadian grandparent as their parent.

Bill C-3 removed the first-generation limit in some situations.

3

You

Born outside Canada to that parent. Your status follows your parent’s, under the rule that applies to your date of birth.

Proven with

A birth certificate naming that parent — the long-form version.

Born before Dec 15, 2025: in most cases a citizen automatically.

How citizenship by descent passes down a family line. The grandparent is where the line starts; the claim runs through the parent, and every link needs civil documents.

The key point

Citizenship is not inherited from a grandparent. It passes from parent to child, and every link must be proven with civil documents.

Every link must be evidenced

Every generation in the line needs documents that show two things: that the citizenship was there, and that the parent-child link was there. Sometimes a single record covers part of the chain and another link needs two or three. What a file cannot survive is a gap — a missing record, or two records that do not agree, will slow the application down or leave the chain impossible to follow.

Status is assessed at each birth date

This is the point that catches people out. The question is never “how many generations back was the Canadian?” It is whether each person in the line held Canadian citizenship at the moment the next person was born, under the Act in force on that date. A generation count is a shortcut; the dates are the actual rule.

A chain is only as good as its weakest link, the weak link is rarely the one people expect, and IRCC tells you which one it was two years after you filed. Send us your line and we will tell you now, which generation needs work.

Can I claim Canadian citizenship through grandparents?

You can claim Canadian citizenship through a grandparent in many cases — but not the way most people picture it. Canadian citizenship through grandparents is how most people describe this claim, and others call it Canadian ancestry citizenship. Both point at the same thing. The mechanism is worth a minute, because it decides what your file has to prove: citizenship does not jump from a grandparent straight to you. It moves one link at a time, parent to child. Your grandparent is where the line starts. Your parent is how it reaches you.

  1. Your grandparent was a Canadian citizen — born in Canada, naturalized there, or Canadian by another recognized route.
  2. Your parent was born outside Canada to that grandparent. Under the rules in force before December 2025, a child born abroad in the first generation was already Canadian. So in the usual case your parent has been a citizen their whole life, passport or no passport.
  3. You were born outside Canada to that parent. Before December 2025 the first-generation limit stopped the line right here — your parent was Canadian and you were not. That is precisely what Bill C-3 changed: in many second-generation cases, the claim now reaches you.

The same logic reaches further back. Because Bill C-3 lifted the limit in some situations, a claim through a great-grandparent is possible in some cases. A longer line does not mean a different rule — it means more records, and more places where the chain can break.

Two worked examples

Two family lines with the same shape can end in different places. These show how the dates do the work.

Example 1 — the common American case

Grandmother — born in Ontario, Canada, 1941.
Father — born in Michigan, United States, 1968.
You — born in Michigan, United States, 1995.

You were born before December 15, 2025, so no physical-presence test applies to you. The 2025 changes may have altered both your father’s status and yours. To know where you stand, each of the three generations has to be documented and a citizenship certificate application filed so IRCC can determine your status.

Example 2 — a child born after the change

Grandfather — born in Nova Scotia, Canada, 1950.
Mother — born in Texas, United States, 1985; Canadian by descent.
Child — born in Texas, United States, 2026.

Because the child was born after December 15, 2025 and the Canadian parent was born outside Canada, the mother must show at least 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada before the birth. Those days are calculated and evidenced on form CIT 0555. Without them, this rule does not carry the citizenship forward to the child.

These are illustrations, not determinations. Two families with the same shape can reach different outcomes depending on dates, adoptions, Crown service and the law in force at each birth.

The longer the line, the more places it can break — and a break found after filing costs you the whole queue over again. Claims through a grandparent or great-grandparent are where a second opinion pays for itself. Ask us whether yours holds up — it costs nothing to find out.

What is the 1,095-day connection test, and does it apply to me?

The 1,095-day connection test is the one new requirement Bill C-3 introduced. For births and adoptions on or after December 15, 2025, a Canadian parent who was themselves born or adopted outside Canada must show a substantial connection to Canada in order to pass citizenship on. IRCC defines that as at least 1,095 days — three years — of physical presence in Canada before the child’s birth or adoption. The days are counted cumulatively; they do not have to be three unbroken years.

Who it does not affect: anyone born before December 15, 2025, and any parent who was born in Canada. If you are researching your own claim through a grandparent or great-grandparent, this test almost certainly does not apply to you — it governs whether your own future children born abroad will inherit citizenship from you.

Evidence commonly used to prove days in Canada

School and university transcripts or enrollment records
Employment records, pay statements and records of employment
Canada Revenue Agency notices of assessment and tax filings
Leases, dated rental agreements and utility accounts
Provincial health-coverage records
Travel history: entry and exit records, stamps and boarding passes

A patchwork of screenshots and recollections will not survive review. The point of the file is to make three years of presence provable in documents a decision-maker can verify independently, calculated on form CIT 0555. Treat any day count as provisional until it has been checked against IRCC’s current guidance.

Counting days across two decades and several countries is where good files go wrong. We can review the count with you before it becomes a request for more evidence with a deadline attached.

Who are the Lost Canadians, and was your family one of them?

“Lost Canadians” are people who lost their Canadian citizenship, or never received it at all, because of provisions in older citizenship laws that today would be considered outdated or discriminatory. Many found out only when a passport application came back refused; others never knew. Those provisions have since been repealed, and a series of reforms has restored the status to most of the people affected.

Canada’s first Citizenship Act came into force on January 1, 1947. Before that date there was no such thing as a Canadian citizen in law — people born or naturalized in Canada were British subjects. That date anchors most deep family lines, and it is where a lot of otherwise promising claims become complicated.

Successive amendments have restored status to these groups. IRCC’s own description of the 1947 Act is that it “contained provisions that resulted in some losing citizenship based on gender and marital status, place of birth or naturalization status”. The 2009 amendments reached back to January 1, 1947; the 2015 amendments extended recognition to people born before that date and to their children born in the first generation abroad.

Did someone in your family lose their citizenship at 28?

The retention requirement, better known as the “age 28 rule”, is the single most missed issue in these files. Under the 1977 Act, people born abroad in the second and subsequent generations were Canadian automatically but had to retain their citizenship by age 28. Those who did not meet the requirement lost their citizenship on their 28th birthday. If someone in your family was told years ago that they had “lost” their Canadian citizenship at 28, that line may be worth reassessing under the current rules — and if it is, it may also affect their children.

Be careful what you read on this

Pre-1947 lines are genuinely case-by-case. The outcome depends on the status of a specific ancestor on a specific date, and no article — including this one — can settle it. We will tell you plainly if your line is one of the difficult ones.

Pre-1947 lines and retention cases are genuinely difficult, and one date read the wrong way sinks the claim on a technicality nobody spots until IRCC does. Tell us the dates and we will tell you what your file would have to prove.

Am I a Canadian citizen already?

It is the question we are asked most often about Canada citizenship by descent, and if you were born outside Canada to a Canadian parent the answer is quite possibly yes — and you may have been one your whole life without knowing it. IRCC publishes a short “Check if you may be a citizen” guide as a starting point, but it is only a starting point. The only way to know for certain is to apply for a citizenship certificate and let IRCC decide.

That matters more since December 2025 than it did before, because a change in the law moved a large group of people from “not a citizen” to “possibly a citizen already” without anyone writing to tell them. IRCC’s instruction is direct: if you think you became a citizen because of Bill C-3, apply for a citizenship certificate to find out for sure.

Before you order a single record, four questions put your family on one side of the line or the other:

Step 1

Were you born outside Canada?

Yes

Keep going. Citizenship by descent is for people born abroad.

No

You are almost certainly a citizen by birth. A provincial birth certificate proves it.

Step 2

Was a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent a Canadian citizen?

Yes

Keep going. The claim starts with them, even if they never held a passport.

No

There is no line to trace. A different route to Canada may still fit.

Step 3

Were you born before December 15, 2025?

Yes

In most cases the law already treats you as a citizen. No physical-presence test applies.

No

One extra condition applies to your Canadian parent — see step 4.

Step 4

Was your Canadian parent also born outside Canada?

Yes

For births from Dec 15, 2025 onward, that parent needs 1,095 days in Canada before your birth.

No

No connection test applies. Your claim follows the ordinary rule.

You may already be Canadian — and not know it.

Only IRCC can confirm it, and only from documents. The chain has to be proven generation by generation, in the exact record versions IRCC accepts.

Nobody at IRCC is going to write and tell you that the law changed in your favour. Run the free eligibility check to see where your family line stands, in about two minutes.

What documents does IRCC actually need?

A citizenship by descent application has to prove two things on paper: that your ancestor really was a Canadian citizen, and that every parent-child link between that ancestor and you can be traced. IRCC lists what the file must contain in its document checklist (CIT 0014) and its paper application guide. Every document has to come from the authority that issued it, as a legible color copy.

The checklist falls into two piles: what proves your ancestor was Canadian, and what proves the chain reaches you. For the ancestor, any one of a short list will do — a Canadian provincial or territorial birth certificate, a citizenship or naturalization certificate, a Certificate of Registration of Birth Abroad, a Certificate of Retention of Canadian Citizenship, a British naturalization certificate issued in Canada, or proof of British subject status before 1947.

Two piles: one proves your ancestor was Canadian, one proves the chain reaches you.

1

For your Canadian ancestor

Any one of these, from the authority that issued it:

A Canadian provincial or territorial birth certificate
A citizenship or naturalization certificate
A Certificate of Registration of Birth Abroad
A Certificate of Retention of Canadian Citizenship
A British naturalization certificate issued in Canada, or in Newfoundland and Labrador
Proof of British subject status before January 1, 1947 — April 1, 1949 for Newfoundland and Labrador

2

For every generation in between, and for you

The birth certificate of every person in the chain, showing their parents’ names
Where names differ between generations: a marriage certificate or a legal name-change document, to connect the records
A complete translation for any record not in English or French, done by someone outside your family

A personalized document checklist sets out what your own file requires.

How every record must arrive: from the original issuing authority, as legible color copies.

✗ Genealogy platforms and DNA tests show you where to look. They are not the evidence the decision rests on.

What does the proof of citizenship application involve?

A Canada citizenship by descent claim is filed as a proof of citizenship application — a request for a Canadian citizenship certificate. IRCC accepts it online or on paper, and which route is open to you depends mainly on when you were born, not on what you prefer.

  1. Document the chain. Order the records for every generation from the offices that issued them. This is the slow part, and it is where files are won or lost.
  2. Check which route applies and follow the checklist IRCC gives you for it.
  3. Pay the government fee and add form IMM 5476 if someone is representing you.
  4. Wait for the decision. Almost every file is decided on the documents alone.

There is no citizenship test, no oath, no ceremony, no residence and no language requirement — none of that belongs to this route. And those four steps are the shape of the process, not the work. What decides your file is step one: whether your records actually prove Canadian citizenship at the right moment and a parent-child link at every generation, in the versions IRCC accepts. That judgement is specific to your family and cannot be looked up.

01

Document the chain

Order records from the original issuing authorities for every generation, as legible color copies.

02

File the application

Online or on paper, depending on your situation. Paper uses form CIT 0001 with checklist CIT 0014; online generates a personalized checklist.

03

Pay the government fee

CAD $75 per person, set by the Government of Canada. Many families also appoint a licensed consultant for peace of mind — a separate fee that depends on the case. Appointing one adds form IMM 5476.

04

IRCC decides

Most files are decided on the record. If you are a citizen, IRCC issues the citizenship certificate as proof.

None of this applies

No citizenship test

No oath or ceremony

No residence requirement

No language requirement

Worth knowing

The certificate proves status; it is not a passport. IRCC makes the final determination when it assesses the application.

Before you order a single record

Every certificate ordered from the wrong office, or in the wrong version, is money spent and weeks lost — and you will not find out which one was wrong until IRCC writes back. A licensed RCIC can tell you from the dates alone which records your line needs, and which ones you do not have to pay for.

Get a free assessment

What a Canadian citizenship certificate is

A Canadian citizenship certificate is the official proof of citizenship IRCC issues. If IRCC confirms that you are a citizen, the certificate is what you use to apply for a Canadian passport. It is not a passport itself, and it is not a travel document. Other programs — provincial health coverage, a Social Insurance Number — have their own requirements.

How long does it take right now?

A Canadian citizenship by descent application currently takes about 33 months. That is IRCC’s published processing time for a proof of citizenship application, as of its September 3, 2026 update, with approximately 136,000 people waiting for a decision. The figure has changed almost every month this year.

Last verified against IRCC’s own processing-time tool on September 3, 2026. IRCC republishes this figure monthly; check it before you plan around it.

12
May
15
Jun
19
Jul
25
Aug
33
Sep

Months shown are the estimate published during each month. Figures in months, not weeks.

33 months

Published processing time, September 3, 2026

≈136,000

People waiting for a decision

How the wait grew

+3 months in June, +4 in July, +6 in August, +8 in September. The increase is getting bigger each time — 21 months added between May and September, and not one month down.

Why filing correctly matters: An application returned as incomplete has to be corrected and resubmitted, which can postpone the decision by years.

Should you wait for the backlog to clear?

Waiting does not guarantee a shorter wait. IRCC’s published estimate has risen every month this year rather than fallen, and the estimate is not a queue number: IRCC says processing time depends on the type of application, whether the file is complete, how easily it can verify your information, how quickly you respond to its requests, and other factors. What you control is the completeness of the file. Check IRCC’s official processing-time tool before planning around any specific timeline.

That is also why a returned application costs so much. An application returned as incomplete has to be corrected and resubmitted, and at a published estimate of 33 months that is not a delay of weeks — it can postpone the decision by years. In defined circumstances IRCC will also consider urgent processing of a citizenship certificate, at no extra cost and with no guarantee.

A file that is right the first time is the only part of this timeline you control. Get it wrong and you do not wait 33 months — you wait 33 months and then start again. Have yours reviewed before it joins the queue.

How much does a citizenship by descent application cost?

There are three separate cost buckets, and it is worth keeping them apart.

CostPaid to · Notes
Government application fee
CAD $75 per person
Paid to:
IRCC, directly
Notes:
Per applicant, paid when you submit. Set by the Government of Canada. Confirm the current amount with IRCC before paying — fees change. Checked September 2026.
Records and translations
Paid to:
Vital-statistics offices, archives, translators
Notes:
Varies with how many generations and countries your chain crosses. The bucket most people underestimate.
Professional fee
Paid to:
Immigration Pros
Notes:
Optional. Quoted after your free assessment, once we can see the real case — it depends on the generations, the countries and how many people are applying. Agreed before you commit.

The first two are unavoidable. The third is a choice — and for almost every family line we see, it is the choice worth making. The rules do not require a representative. What one buys is not a faster decision, because nobody can promise that: it is the confidence that the chain has been checked generation by generation, that the right version of every certificate was ordered, and that the file will not come back for something a licensed RCIC would have caught in an afternoon. With a published wait measured in years, that is what people are really paying for.

Because no two family lines are the same, there is no single price. The quote depends on how many generations the claim crosses, how many countries the records come from, and how many people are applying together — a family filing four claims is not four times the work, and the quote reflects that. You see the number before you commit, and the assessment that produces it is free.

Descent, birth in Canada and naturalization — what is the difference?

Canada recognizes three routes to citizenship, and confusing them is the source of most of the wrong advice on this subject. Only the first is what this page is about.

RouteWho it applies to · What it requires of you
By descent
Who it applies to:
Born outside Canada to a Canadian parent.
What it requires of you:
Nothing but proof. No residence, no language, no test, no oath. Status already exists; you apply for a certificate to confirm it.
By birth in Canada
birthright citizenship
Who it applies to:
Born on Canadian soil, whatever the parents’ status, with a narrow exception for children of foreign diplomats and certain representatives. This is what “birthright citizenship in Canada” refers to, and Canada still applies it.
What it requires of you:
Nothing. A Canadian provincial or territorial birth certificate is normally proof enough.
By naturalization
Canadian citizenship by naturalization
Who it applies to:
Permanent residents who apply to become citizens. This is the route most online guides describe, and it is not yours if you are Canadian by descent.
What it requires of you:
PR status, 1,095 days of physical presence in the 5 years before signing, tax filing for 3 of those years, adequate English or French (CLB/NCLC level 4) and a citizenship test if you are 18–54, and the oath if you are 14 or older.

Naturalization requirements: IRCC — Citizenship eligibility. If that is the route you are on, our Canadian citizenship page covers it.

People often reach us convinced they need to move to Canada, pass a test or take an oath before they can claim a Canadian parent’s citizenship. Those belong to naturalization — a different application, at a different fee, for people who are not already citizens. If you are Canadian by descent, none of them apply to you.

Why do by-descent applications get delayed or refused?

Applications get delayed, returned or refused when the evidence does not establish the citizenship chain — not usually because of anything about the applicant. The distinction matters, because an evidence problem is one you can fix before you file.

Nobody gets refused for wanting it too much. Files fail for small, specific, boring reasons — and every one of them is visible before you send anything, to someone who knows where to look:

The mistakeWhat it costs you · What a review does
The short-form birth certificate
the most common single error
What it costs you:
It omits parents’ names, so the link cannot be traced. IRCC asks for more evidence — or returns the file
What a review does:
We name the exact version to order, from the exact office, before you pay for the wrong one
A generation with no record
What it costs you:
The chain breaks. Everything else can be perfect and the claim still cannot be followed end to end
What a review does:
We find the substitute IRCC accepts, and the letter that has to go with it
Names that do not match
anglicized surnames, married names, spelling drift
What it costs you:
Two records are not read as the same person
What a review does:
We identify which document reconciles them before an officer has to guess
Genealogy printouts offered as proof
What it costs you:
Family-tree websites are a research lead, not source evidence. Only official records from the issuing authority carry weight
What a review does:
We tell you which official record replaces the printout, and which office holds it
Assuming the generation count settles it
reading your own eligibility off a summary
What it costs you:
“My grandfather was Canadian” is not by itself an answer. Whether he held citizenship on the relevant dates, and whether it transmitted at each step, is the actual question
What a review does:
A licensed RCIC reads the actual dates against the actual rules, first, for free
Missing a request for evidence
What it costs you:
Requests come with deadlines. A missed or incomplete response can close a file that would otherwise have been approved
What a review does:
Correspondence is handled by your authorized representative, on IRCC’s deadlines

With processing estimates now measured in years, a file that draws a request for more evidence is not a minor setback. Getting the record right the first time is the single highest-value thing you can do.

Not sure your chain holds together?

Every item on that list is something a review catches before the file goes in, not two years later. None of them announces itself: the file looks finished right up to the moment IRCC sends it back. We look at your family line and tell you what is missing — before you spend on records or filing fees.

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Do I need a Canadian citizenship by descent lawyer or consultant?

Legally, no — nobody is required to use one. In practice, it is what we would recommend for almost every family line. The reason is plain: you cannot tell which kind of case you have until someone who reads these files has read yours. A claim that looks like one clean generation can still turn on a short-form certificate, a name that changed along the way, or a date nobody thought to check. A claim that crosses three generations and two countries — the one most people turn out to have — carries more of those points, not a different kind of risk.

Most people searching for help type “Canadian citizenship by descent lawyer”. Worth knowing: a lawyer is not the only professional Canadian law authorizes, and for this kind of file usually not the closest fit. A licensed immigration consultant — an RCIC — can represent you before IRCC for exactly this, at a fraction of what litigation costs, because a by-descent claim is won on records, not in a courtroom. For a documentary file, an RCIC is the professional to look for.

Here is the part that should decide it for you

IRCC’s published wait went from 12 months to 33 months between May and September 2026. It has risen every single month this year. A file that comes back for a missing certificate does not restart in weeks — it restarts at the back of a queue that is years long and getting longer.

An afternoon of review now, against two or three years lost later. That is the whole trade.

Get my family line reviewed — free

No cost, no obligation, answer in plain English.

Who is allowed to help you — and who is not

Only four kinds of people may charge you for immigration or citizenship advice in Canada: RCICs licensed by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC), lawyers and paralegals in good standing with a provincial or territorial law society, and members of the Chambre des notaires du Québec. Anyone else charging you for this is not authorized, and the fact that they have a website does not change that. You can look up any RCIC on the CICC’s public register in under a minute — including ours.

Immigration Pros is a licensed consultancy. Our RCICs are authorized to represent you before IRCC, are bound by a professional code of conduct, carry mandatory liability insurance, and answer to a public complaints process. We are regulated immigration consultants, not lawyers — and we will tell you plainly if your case is one of the rare ones that needs a lawyer, such as a refusal challenged at the Federal Court.

What the file needsWith Immigration Pros · On your own
Knowing whether your line actually qualifies
With Immigration Pros:
Read by a licensed RCIC before you spend on records
On your own:
Interpreted from summaries online
Knowing which records to order
With Immigration Pros:
Specialist advice for your own case: we read your family line and build the list it needs, record by record
On your own:
Trial and error, often the wrong certificate type
Catching gaps before filing
With Immigration Pros:
Document-by-document review
On your own:
Usually discovered only after a request for evidence
Correspondence with IRCC
With Immigration Pros:
Handled by your authorized representative, on IRCC’s deadlines
On your own:
Entirely on you
Peace of mind
specialists who have seen your kind of case before
With Immigration Pros:
Immigration casework since 2007 behind every file. Your claim is read by people who work citizenship by descent specifically, and who already know where these files break
On your own:
None. Whatever goes wrong is yours to unpick, and you find out years later

Anyone filing one of these is better off having a licensed RCIC read it before it goes in, because the cost of finding out too late is measured in years, not dollars. Find out which kind of case you have: the review costs nothing and takes two minutes to start.

Can I keep my other citizenship?

Canada’s half of the answer is yes. Canada permits multiple citizenship, so being recognized as a Canadian citizen does not require you to give up another nationality — not on Canada’s side of it.

The other half is not Canada’s to decide. Whether you may keep the citizenship you already hold is governed by that country’s law. Some countries allow dual citizenship outright, some allow it subject to conditions, and a few do not allow it at all. So the answer depends on which passport you hold today, and the place to confirm it is that country’s own authorities — before you file anything with IRCC.

Take U.S. citizens as an example. Whether you may hold both is a question for U.S. authorities or a U.S. attorney — not for IRCC, and not for us. There is also a practical point worth knowing at the border. Dual Canadian citizens generally need a valid Canadian passport to board a flight to Canada, but Canadian-American dual citizens may fly with either a valid Canadian passport or a valid U.S. passport. Traveling on the U.S. passport alone means carrying identification that shows Canadian citizenship, and it may mean going through immigration screening; IRCC’s advice is to travel with both.

Which common beliefs about citizenship by descent are wrong?

Find out whether you are already Canadian

A citizenship by descent file is not complicated to describe and it is easy to get wrong: one missing generation, one record from the wrong authority, and 33 months of waiting start again. Immigration Pros Inc. provides Canadian immigration services through Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultants, including Galo Castillo, RCIC (CICC R408519). The engagement covers the whole file:

Ancestry eligibility analysis under the amended Citizenship Act
Chain-of-citizenship documentation and verification
Guidance on the Canadian archive records you will need to obtain
Preparation of the proof of citizenship certificate application
Representation before IRCC, application submission and case monitoring
Support in English, French and Spanish

Tell us which generation your claim runs through and which records you already hold. We assess whether your family line appears to support a citizenship certificate application, and what each generation still needs.

Citizenship by Descent Simplified IP ENG

After you submit, our assistant asks a few quick questions to finish — about 2 minutes.

IRCC makes the final determination when it assesses an application for proof of citizenship. Immigration Pros Inc. is not affiliated with the Government of Canada and does not issue documents or certificates; archive records are obtained by the applicant, with our guidance on what to request and where.

Frequently asked questions about Canadian citizenship by descent

Who reviewed this page

Galo Castillo is a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, CICC licence R408519, practicing with Immigration Pros Inc. He reads the legal content on this page before it is published — the date rules, the Bill C-3 section, the Lost Canadians history and the comparison with naturalization — and he is the consultant who reviews the family lines that arrive through it.

You can verify that licence yourself on the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants’ public register. That is the same check we would ask you to run on anyone you are about to pay for immigration advice, us included. Nothing here is legal advice, and IRCC — not a consultant — decides citizenship.

Related pages

Canadian citizenship by descent eligibility checker

Official sources

IRCC — Change to citizenship rules in 2025 (Bill C-3)
IRCC — Changes to citizenship rules 2009 to 2015
IRCC — Chronology of Lost Canadians and the first-generation limit
IRCC — Applying if you may be affected by the first-generation limit
IRCC — Check if you may be a citizen
IRCC — Get proof of Canadian citizenship
IRCC — Apply for a citizenship certificate: how to apply
IRCC — Apply for a citizenship certificate: about the process and fees
IRCC — Application for a citizenship certificate (CIT 0001)
IRCC — Document checklist (CIT 0014)
IRCC — How to calculate physical presence for a Canadian parent (CIT 0555)
IRCC — Guide 0001: supporting documents, translations and quality assurance
IRCC — Citizenship photo specifications
IRCC — Search of citizenship records
IRCC — When and how to apply urgently for a citizenship certificate
IRCC — Use of a Representative (IMM 5476)
IRCC — Citizenship by naturalization: eligibility
IRCC — Dual Canadian citizens: travel documents
IRCC — Check processing times

This article provides general information about Canadian citizenship and is not legal advice. Citizenship eligibility depends on individual facts and on the Citizenship Act in force at the relevant time. IRCC determines citizenship status when it assesses an application for proof of citizenship. Published September 4, 2026; last reviewed September 14, 2026 by Galo Castillo, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, CICC licence R408519, who practices with Immigration Pros Inc. Processing times, government fees and program rules change — figures are dated where they appear.

Table Of Contents
  1. The short answers
  2. What is Canadian citizenship by descent?
  3. What did Bill C-3 change on December 15, 2025?
  4. Who qualifies for Canadian citizenship by descent in 2026?
  5. How does citizenship pass from one generation to the next?
  6. Can I claim Canadian citizenship through grandparents?
  7. What is the 1,095-day connection test, and does it apply to me?
  8. Who are the Lost Canadians, and was your family one of them?
  9. Am I a Canadian citizen already?
  10. What documents does IRCC actually need?
  11. What does the proof of citizenship application involve?
  12. How long does it take right now?
  13. How much does a citizenship by descent application cost?
  14. Descent, birth in Canada and naturalization — what is the difference?
  15. Why do by-descent applications get delayed or refused?
  16. Do I need a Canadian citizenship by descent lawyer or consultant?
  17. Can I keep my other citizenship?
  18. Which common beliefs about citizenship by descent are wrong?
  19. Find out whether you are already Canadian
  20. Frequently asked questions about Canadian citizenship by descent
  21. Related pages
  22. Official sources

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