TERRACE, B.C. – The Canadian federal government has passed landmark legislation that fundamentally changes citizenship rules, resolving the decades-long issue of “Lost Canadians” while introducing a strict new requirement for Canadians living abroad.
The legislation, Bill C-3: An Act to amend the Citizenship Act, received Royal Assent on November 20, 2025, following a judicial mandate to fix a policy declared unconstitutional by the Ontario Superior Court. The entire new framework must be fully in force by the court-imposed deadline of January 20, 2026.
Unconditional Citizenship Granted to ‘Lost Canadians’
The first major function of Bill C-3 is to provide comprehensive, unconditional relief for historical injustices:
- Retrospective Grant: Citizenship is automatically restored to all persons born outside Canada before the new law takes effect whose citizenship was previously denied due to the arbitrary “First-Generation Limit” (FGL).
- Resolution: This provision fulfills the government’s commitment to restoring citizenship rights to thousands of individuals with clear hereditary ties who were denied status purely based on where their parents or ancestors were born.
The New Hurdle: Substantial Connection Test (SCT)
For all future generations—children born outside Canada after the law comes into force—citizenship by descent is no longer automatic but is conditional.
The new rule, called the Substantial Connection Test (SCT), requires the Canadian parent born abroad to prove they had a verifiable 1,095 cumulative days of physical presence in Canada (three full years) before the birth or adoption of the child.
This mechanism is designed to strike a balance: allowing descent beyond the first generation (complying with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms) while restricting the perpetual transmission of citizenship to individuals with no tangible ties to the country.
Legal Vulnerability in Adoptions
While the legislation resolves the “Lost Canadians” issue, it faces immediate constitutional scrutiny regarding its application to intercountry adoptees.
The SCT applies the 1,095-day residency requirement to parents adopting children abroad. This creates a profound legal contradiction, as children adopted domestically acquire citizenship status without any parental residency requirement being imposed. Legal experts and advocates argue this differential treatment violates Section 15 (equality provisions) of the Charter and conflicts with Canada’s international treaty obligations.
Despite the controversy, the government proceeded with the bill due to the extreme pressure of the January 20, 2026, judicial deadline, leaving this provision open to an imminent constitutional challenge.
The success of the implementation will depend heavily on Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) preparing its administrative systems to handle the projected surge in applications and the complex evidence required to verify the new three-year residency test.
