If your parent, grandparent, or great-grandparent was born in Canada, you may already be a Canadian citizen. Canada’s new citizenship law — Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act — has permanently removed the first-generation limit that previously prevented Canadian citizenship from passing beyond one generation born outside Canada. For Americans with Canadian ancestry, the implications are enormous.
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Under the new law, citizenship now flows through multiple generations for anyone born before the law came into force. There is no generational limit for past births. If you can trace an unbroken line of descent to a Canadian citizen — whether that is your parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, or even further back — you may now be recognized as a Canadian citizen at birth.
Our son notified me of this recent change in Canadian Citizenship Act which makes him a Canadian citizen, too. While he holds the security clearance he does, the Army restricts him from any “citizenship affirming action,” but he said he’ll probably pursue once he leaves the military. I claimed my Canadian citizenship (father was born in Canada) in 2021. Once I had my registration number, obtaining a passport was straightforward.
Basically, the new relaxed rules are the 23-and-Me of citizenship. If there’s a sneaky Canadian hiding somewhere in your family tree — VOILA! You are Canadian, too. And you don’t need to spit.