# CHANGE TO CITIZENSHIP RULES IN 2025 (BILL C-3) — Government of Canada

SOURCE: Government of Canada (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada)
LIVE URL: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-citizenship/act-changes/rules-2025.html
ACCESSED: 2026-09-03

## Key statements (quoted directly from the page)

"On December 15, 2025, the Government of Canada passed Bill C-3, An Act to amend the
Citizenship Act. This legislation changes the first-generation limit to citizenship by
descent. This change officially took effect on December 15, 2025."

"Before Bill C-3, Canadian citizenship by descent was limited to the first generation
born outside Canada. This rule was called the first-generation limit to citizenship."

"How we count generations: we consider the first generation to be the first person born
or adopted OUTSIDE Canada to a Canadian citizen. First generation: born outside Canada
to a Canadian citizen who was born in Canada or granted citizenship (naturalized). This
person is Canadian by descent. Second generation or later: also born outside Canada to a
first-generation person."

"If you were born or adopted on or after December 15, 2025: People born outside Canada in
the second generation (or later) may be Canadian if their parent was also born or adopted
outside Canada to a Canadian citizen (meaning the grandparent was Canadian), AND that same
parent spent at least 1,095 days in Canada before the birth."

## What this proves for Jack's file

1. Even under the NEW Bill C-3 rules, citizenship by descent requires a parent or
   grandparent who was a CANADIAN CITIZEN (born in Canada or naturalized, or a
   first-generation Canadian born abroad).
2. In this family, NO ancestor since Antoine Barabé (b. 1837, d. 1898) has ever been a
   Canadian citizen. Antoine died 49 years before Canadian citizenship existed (1 Jan
   1947). He was a British subject, not a citizen, and had nothing to pass down.
3. Every generation since — Eldridge Sr. (b. ~1871 MI), Vertin George (b. 1913 CA),
   Paul (b. 1946 AZ), Jennifer, Jack — was born in the United States to US-born parents,
   with no Canadian parent anywhere in the chain and no Canadian residence since the
   1850s (and none at all since 1898).
4. Therefore neither the pre-2025 first-generation limit nor Bill C-3's changes can
   apply to Jack: the chain of Canadian citizenship is broken at its very start.