Canada tightens citizenship-by-descent rules. Here’s who could be affected

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Canada tightens citizenship-by-descent rules. Here's who could be affected

Applicants who relied primarily on genealogy platform records are being advised to proactively supplement their files with certified copies from source authorities before a decision is made.

5 min readJun 20, 2026 02:33 PM IST

First published on: Jun 20, 2026 at 02:32 PM IST

A Canadian passport and citizenship documents laid on a desk, representing citizenship by descent applications. (Photo: AP)

Canada has tightened its citizenship-by-descent application standards under Bill C-3 (the “Lost Canadians” law), introducing new language in Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada’s (IRCC) Document Checklist (Form CIT 0014) on June 17, 2026 that bars applicants from relying solely on third-party genealogy records such as Ancestry.ca or FamilySearch printouts — a change that could affect tens of thousands of the 82,000 people currently in the processing queue.

The Bill C-3 law, which received Royal Assent on November 20, 2025, and came into force on December 15, 2025, removed Canada’s first-generation limit on citizenship by descent, allowing Canadian citizens born abroad to pass citizenship to their children even when those children are also born abroad.

What changed in the checklist

The CIT 0014 update follows IRCC’s controversial issuance of surrender letters over the weekend of June 13-14, 2026, to “a few dozen” applicants who had already received Canadian citizenship certificates, a step that Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab has defended as necessary for documentary integrity, but which immigration lawyers have publicly contested, citing IRCC’s own checklist that explicitly permits “any other evidence” of citizenship and Federal Court precedents including Thompson v. Canada (2021 FC 914) and Somers-Edgar v. Canada (2026 FC 417) that protect applicants who relied in good faith on the department’s published instructions.

The form now states three core requirements: documents must be authentic, reliable and verifiable for every generation in the application; applications cannot rest solely on third-party records; and documents must come from the original authority that created or holds the record, such as a civil registry or vital statistics office.

IRCC has also added a warning to its online guide stating that if applicants find records on genealogy platforms, official versions of those records likely exist and should be requested directly from the original authority, which directly targets the practice of submitting genealogy website printouts as primary evidence.

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Why are the rules tightening now?

The update formalises a standard IRCC had already been applying informally since at least mid-June, when the department ordered a number of recently approved citizenship certificates to be returned for review. In a statement issued on 18 June, IRCC confirmed it has temporarily paused the finalisation of some new citizenship by descent applications while it conducts an internal review, saying it is “reviewing how this occurred” and taking steps to ensure applications are assessed fairly and lawfully.

The pause follows surrender letters sent to what IRCC described as “a few dozen” people who had already received citizenship certificates. People who received certificates and have already moved to Canada can continue working during the review, though IRCC has confirmed they cannot use a Canadian passport while the review is ongoing. Under Canadian citizenship law, applicants who have received a surrender letter remain considered Canadian citizens while their application is under review, and will get a chance to submit additional evidence before any final decision.

What this means for applicants in the queue

As of June 10, 2026, approximately 82,000 people are waiting for citizenship certificate applications to be processed, up from 70,400 in May and 56,000 in April. Processing times have surged from five months in May 2025 to 15 months under the latest IRCC data.

IRCC has not issued specific guidance on whether the updated checklist standards apply retroactively to applications already in the queue. Applicants who relied primarily on genealogy platform records are being advised to proactively supplement their files with certified copies from source authorities before a decision is made.

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Where birth certificates or other primary records genuinely cannot be obtained, applicants must explain in writing why the documents are unavailable and show proof they tried to obtain them for instance, by including correspondence with issuing authorities confirming the records do not exist. Acceptable alternative evidence includes hospital birth records, records from a physician or midwife present at the birth, certified baptismal records, census records and boat manifests.

Legal questions remain unresolved

Immigration lawyers continue to argue that the checklist still permits “any other evidence” as an acceptable category, and that applicants who followed the instructions available at the time of their application should not face retroactive penalties. Federal Court precedents, including Thompson v. Canada (2021 FC 914) and Somers-Edgar v. Canada (2026 FC 417), support the principle that IRCC must provide clear instructions and cannot hold applicants to standards that were not communicated when they filed.

How IRCC balances its tightened standards against its obligations to applicants who filed under the earlier rules is likely to shape the trajectory of the citizenship-by-descent programme going forward.

Canada’s citizenship-by-descent route is closely watched by the large Indian-Canadian diaspora, many of whom have family members pursuing citizenship claims through Canadian-born or naturalised ancestors. Stricter documentary standards could particularly affect applicants relying on Indian civil registry records, which are not always centrally digitised, making certified original documents harder to source quickly.

With inputs from Immigration News Canada, IRCC

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