The “Lost Canadians” legislation, designed to amend Canada’s citizenship-by-descent rules, has now become law after passing in the Senate and receiving royal assent on Nov. 20.
The legislation, previously known as Bill C-3, makes several changes to the Citizenship Act, allowing Canadian citizens born abroad—who have lived in Canada for at least 1,095 days—to pass citizenship to their foreign-born children. It also reinstates citizenship to individuals who had lost it under former regulations and simplifies the process for adopted children to obtain citizenship.
Lawmakers disagreed during a Nov. 19 debate in the Senate about questions of national identity and the necessity to comply with a 2023 ruling from the Ontario Supreme Court that eliminated a first-generation limit on citizenship by descent that was established in 2009….