Overview
- Canada scrapped the old first‑generation cap through Bill C‑3, restoring citizenship to people born before December 15, 2025 who can prove descent from a Canadian.
- For children born on or after that date, a Canadian parent who was also born abroad must have lived in Canada at least 1,095 days before the birth or adoption.
- Eligibility now reaches millions of Americans with Canadian parents, grandparents or great‑grandparents, and U.S. requests to Quebec’s archives jumped from 100 in February 2025 to 1,500 in February 2026.
- Proof‑of‑citizenship cases often require paper filings, and applicants face waits of about 10 months with roughly 50,900 people already in line.
- Italy moved the other way in March 2025 by limiting citizenship by descent to two generations, stripping eligibility from many who previously qualified.