Recent changes under Bill C-3 expand access to Canadian citizenship for children adopted abroad by Canadian parents.
Before Bill C-3 came into effect, Canada’s Citizenship Act limited the passing on of citizenship to the first-generation for people born or adopted abroad. This meant that a Canadian citizen could only pass on citizenship to or access a direct grant of citizenship for a child born or adopted outside Canada if the parent was either born or naturalized in Canada before the child’s birth or adoption.
Children adopted from another country by parents who were born or adopted outside of Canada before December 15, 2025 are now eligible for a direct grant of citizenship with no residency requirement for the parent. For children adopted on or after that date, parents must have lived in Canada for at least three years (1095 days) before the adoption. These changes ensure adopted children are treated the same as biological children born abroad and give more families a clear path to Canadian citizenship.
Bill C-3 also extends access to citizenship to “Lost Canadians” (people who lost or never obtained citizenship because of certain outdated rules in earlier citizenship laws), their descendants, and those born abroad to or adopted abroad by a Canadian parent in the second or later generation before the new law came into effect.
Learn more: Bill C-3: An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025).
