SOCI – Objective 1: Restore and Provide Access to Citizenship to More Individuals and their Descendants – December 5, 2024

Key Facts

• The 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act and the 1977 Citizenship Act contained provisions that resulted in some people losing or not being able to acquire citizenship based on their gender and marital status, place of birth or naturalization status, now referred to as “Lost Canadians.” We now recognize these provisions as outdated.
• Bill C-71 will restore or confer citizenship to all people born abroad before coming into force of this legislation to a Canadian parent, including “Lost Canadians” and their descendants. It will also provide a pathway to citizenship for those born abroad and adopted before coming into force by a Canadian parent.

Key Messages

• Bill C-71 will restore or confer citizenship to those who lost it or did not acquire it due to outdated provisions of the Citizenship Act.
• Although previous changes addressed the status of many “Lost Canadians,” a small group of affected individuals still remains.
• These changes will address most, if not all, of the “Lost Canadians” and their descendants who continue to be excluded from citizenship due to the first generation limit.

Supplementary Information

• Amendments to the Citizenship Act in 2009 and 2015 remedied the majority of "Lost Canadian” cases by providing or restoring citizenship. However, two groups were not remedied – section 8 “Lost Canadians” and the descendants of previously remedied “Lost Canadians.”
• This group comprises persons born abroad to a Canadian parent in the second or subsequent generation who were either never eligible for citizenship or who lost their citizenship at the age of 28 because they did not meet the retention requirements of the 1977 Citizenship Act.
• This legislation will restore or confer citizenship to all people born abroad before coming into force of this legislation to a Canadian parent. It will also provide a pathway to citizenship for those born abroad and adopted before coming into force by a Canadian parent.
• The intent is to remedy the status of any person already born to a Canadian parent who would have been a citizen were it not for the first generation limit or other outdated provisions of the Citizenship Act. This includes individuals who consider themselves “Lost Canadians” and their descendants.
• Any child born abroad and adopted by a Canadian parent before the coming into force date of the legislation will be able to access the direct grant of citizenship for adopted persons, even if they would have previously been excluded by the first generation limit.
• The Department does not track births abroad and therefore is unable to proactively estimate the number of persons born abroad who will become citizens as a result of Bill C-71.

If pressed:

• What is known is that between 2019 and 2023, the Department received an average of 48,000 applications for proof of citizenship, with the majority of applications received in 2023 being from those born abroad.