Canada to modernise citizenship law, Indian-origin families likely to get benefit
PTC News Desk: Canada is one step closer to updating its citizenship-by-descent rules after a new amendment bill received royal assent. This change is expected to impact thousands of families of Indian origin. The Canadian government said in a press release on Friday that Bill C-3 — a 2025 amendment to the Citizenship Act — has now been approved, marking an important step toward making the law more inclusive while still protecting the value of Canadian citizenship.
Since 2009, the law has allowed citizenship by descent only for the first generation. This meant that if a Canadian parent was born or adopted outside Canada, their child born abroad would not automatically get Canadian citizenship.
“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born before the bill comes into force, who would have been citizens if not for the first-generation limit or other outdated rules of past legislation”, the news release said.
“Bill C-3 will fix long-standing issues in our citizenship laws and bring fairness to families with children born or adopted abroad. It will provide citizenship to people who were excluded by previous laws, and it will set clear rules for the future that reflect how modern families live. These changes will strengthen and protect Canadian citizenship,” Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Lena Metlege Diab 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.
This rule created difficulties for many Indian-origin Canadians whose children were born overseas. Under the new law, a Canadian parent who was born or adopted outside the country will now be able to pass citizenship to their child born or adopted abroad, as long as the parent has a strong connection to Canada and the child is born after the new law takes effect.
- PTC NEWS
