C-3 is officially in effect as of today. The FAQ is kind of vague for anyone born past the second generation outside Canada, so I will be curious to see how IRCC implements it. Also, now my siblings and all my paternal first cousins are now Schroedinger’s Canadians. In particular I am curious to see how it will affect my nephew and my first cousins once removed (at least those who aren’t already Canadian via their other parents).
Schroedinger’s Canadian indeed. I’ve been struggling with the same problem since I started looking into Canada’s citizenship laws as a result of this thread:
If generation 2 born abroad is now recognized as Canadian all along, then doesn’t that mean generation 3 (or 4 or 5?) must likewise be considered Canadian all along, provided they were born prior to December 15, 2025?
For the record, I would be generation 3.
Point 5 will apply going forward, post-December 15, 2025, but from what I am reading, it does not apply to people born prior to December 15, 2025 (that was, I believe the issue in Bjorkquist: the law prior to this discriminated between Canadian citizens based on whether they were born in Canada or born abroad, and I guess the court decided that was unjustifiable, so now we have this new law, but written such that it would not strip citizenship from people who would benefit from Bjorkquist). That said, I am not a Canadian Lawyer. However, see:
…and:
From what I have been reading, as long as you can prove a direct line of descent from someone born on the territory of what is now Canada, you are eligible (as long as you were born before 12/15/2025). It remains to be seen how flexible IRCC will be with documentation requirements.
Indeed. But FWIW, the equivalent problem in the US (and the future problem for Canada, for those born abroad after December 15, 2025) tends to be proof of physical presence. I have several clients who are struggling or have struggled (or failed) to prove one or more parents were physically present in the US for some combination of years, possibly also for some number of years after turning 14, and it’s a challenge.
But as far as descent… I mean, for me, I can go onto ancestry.com and see my *Great Grandmother’s baptismal record (Quebec). I can also see where she was married in Ohio. There’s even an immigration record for her in the US when she (1) registered as an “alien” during WWII (the same law Trump has revamped to start requiring registration again today, actually), (2) withdrew an application for naturalization in the 1960s (reason unknown—maybe she just didn’t want to have to lose her Canadian citizenship, which I gather used to be a thing that could happen?), and (3) died in Canada (when I was about 5, actually—now I’m starting to wonder if I ever met her).
If nothing else, having the dates and locations (and in some cases scanned copies) of her birth and marriage records (for proof of name change, even if wedlock births don’t matter under Canadian law) should make obtaining certified (or the Canadian equivalent of certified) copies of these documents imminently achievable.
I think many will find this process becomes much easier with an Ancestry or similar genealogy website account.
Not that this is an advertisement for Ancestry. But, again, this process is going to get a lot harder for people who one day have to prove their ancestor had three years of physical presence in Canada.
*ETA: But I do see in the other thread where you mention issues with maybe informal name changes. That’s an issue I run into a lot on my end for US citizenship, too. Especially for people born in Latin America who will have two surnames at birth and then often (a) drop one surname informally or (b) switch the second surname to a middle name and also (c) anglicize their first name, to the point that it becomes difficult to “connect the dots” from one record to the next.
Yep, in my grandmother’s case, she was born with a Yiddish first name which morphed over the years into an Anglicized name that started with the same letter. In addition, her last name at birth was her father’s name, but after her parents split up when she was a child, her mother went back to using the last name of her late first husband. My grandmother moved to the U.S. near her adult half-brother, so she started using that last name, too. My father and aunt didn’t even know about her birth name until I ordered her birth certificate from Canada many years ago. Without Ancestry.com and a LOT of luck getting other documents from private sources, I wouldn’t have been able to show it was the same person.
I’m a U.S. immigration paralegal and run into the Latin American last name issue for clients all the time. Lately these days, it’s more of an issue for those trying to go the other way and get, say, Mexican citizenship by descent. They often have to get their parents’ names corrected by amending their birth certificates.