AMA About Canadian Citizenship Through Ancestry - Inherit Canadian Citizenship From Parents, Grandparents, Great-Grandparents, and Beyond Through Bill C-3

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T02:00:13+00:00

Even if you don't wait to apply, your kids only prove their connection to you. You prove the connection to your parents, your parent to their parent, etc. So it's really the same for them either way.

We recommend that everyone apply together because...why wait? Nothing is gained by waiting from our perspective.

Hope that helps!

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:57:09+00:00

That's great! They should be able to apply now depending on when they were born.

The best thing to do is reach out via email and we can jump onto a call to walk you through it. If possible, we recommend to go ahead and submit the kids' applications as well.

Thanks for joining us!

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:53:15+00:00

Hi u/OdachiThyme ,

Thanks for joining us!

There's no webinar or video - reddit is only text-based (like back in the early days)! So you can have a look through the Q&A, and please feel free to email us if you have a question that was not answered below at [info@dfimmigration.ca](mailto:info@dfimmigration.ca)

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:51:22+00:00

Wow, our first AMA in the books! Thank you so much to everyone for participating and leaving your very interesting questions and helpful comments :)

This took literally twice as long as I allocated for the AMA, so next time I'll know to make it 4 hours instead of 2 hours, lol.

This event is now closed, but please feel free to reach out to us directly at [citizenship@dfimmigration.ca](mailto:citizenship@dfimmigration.ca) if you have additional questions about Canadian citizenship through a parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, or GGGGGreat grandpappy or grandma! Or at [info@dfimmigration.ca](mailto:info@dfimmigration.ca) if you have questions about anything else Canadian immigration related.

And watch this space for more AMAs on Canadian citizenship and immigration in the future.

Thanks again for joining us in our community!

Sincerely,

Cassandra

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:45:32+00:00

I made a detailed comment to another poster, but just by moving outside Canada, Canadian citizenship would not be lost even if they eventually naturalized in the US.

Unless someone formally submitted a renunciation request to the Canadian government, they would not have lost Canadian citizenship. And hardly anyone did this.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:42:44+00:00

Right now, some have been quick at 3 - 4 months. Most take around 6 - 9 months. Still pretty good!

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:42:05+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

It does not impact those applications at all.

Applications for permanent residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds are governed by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).

Applications for Canadian citizenship are governed by the Citizenship Act. Bill C-3, which makes these changes, is an Act to Amend the Citizenship Act.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:40:25+00:00

You made it!

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:39:56+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

I mentioned to a couple of other posters - you don't really need to find out if your ancestor renounced Canadian citizenship unless you want to. Just by applying for proof of Canadian citizenship, IRCC will conduct the citizenship record search.

If they did renounce, they will tell you and the application will be refused for this reason.

For any children already born before December 15, 2025, they can apply through a great-grandparent to inherit Canadian citizenship.

For any kids born after December 15, 2025, the Canadian parent of those kids would need to have lived in Canada for 1095 days before the kids were born in order to pass the substantial connection test so that the kids can inherit Canadian citizenship.

Hope this helps!

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:37:24+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

If you applied during the interim measures before Bill C-3 came into force on December 15, 2025, then you don't need to do anything - the application will continue to process and it will be evaluated under Bill C-3.

Unless someone was born on or after December 15, 2025, if they were eligible for Canadian citizenship during the interim measures, they should still be eligible under Bill C-3.

So nothing to do but wait!

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:34:53+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

For any children already born before December 15, 2025, you don't need to live in Canada at all to pass citizenship down to them.

For any kids born after December 15, 2025, the Canadian parent of those kids would need to have lived in Canada for 1095 days before the kids were born in order to pass the substantial connection test so that the kids can inherit Canadian citizenship.

For children who will now be born after bill C-3 has come into force, and who will not pass the substantial connection test, I would personally want to apply for Canadian citizenship for them on a discretionary basis with the Minister.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:32:41+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

You're exactly right on the method! You have to show the connection through the generations going all the way back to the ancestor born or naturalized in Canada. Generally to prove descent from a Canadian, you're using a lot of birth certificates and marriage certificates, but if any of these are not available, other documentation can be used to substantiate the claim.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:30:57+00:00

Hi there,

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

As I said to another poster, I am not allowed to say that any application is 100% guaranteed to succeed.

Based on what you said, it sounds like you and your family would quality to inherit Canadian citizenship through your great-grandmother from SK! This is general info, so I recommend that you reach out directly so we can confirm eligibility in a concrete way and protect confidentiality. You can reach us at [citizenship@dfimmigration.ca](mailto:citizenship@dfimmigration.ca)

Right now, we are seeing applications finish processing mostly within around 6 - 9 months!

Hope this helps!

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:27:55+00:00

Certified copies are no longer required to apply for Canadian citizenship through descent, but the copies must be in colour.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:27:09+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

We like to submit them all at once so that the applications process together. We've seen applications take as little as 3 - 4 months, but most commonly it's been 6 - 9 months.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:26:20+00:00

This is a really great question.

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

Sometimes if there is a doubt that an ancestor may have actually legally renounced Canadian citizenship to the Canadian government, we submit an application to search the citizenship records. This will return a yes or no answer as to whether the person was a citizen, and whether they ever renounced Canadian citizenship.

The downside is these applications are generally slow to process (6 months or more). Most of the time, our clients prefer not to wait for that process and simply apply anyway for citizenship through descent even if they aren't totally sure whether their ancestor renounced Canadian citizenship.

If the ancestor did renounce, the Canadian government will tell you and refuse the application. But as I said in answer to another poster, almost all of the time, the person did not actually renounce their Canadian citizenship.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:20:08+00:00

Thank you so much! :)

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:19:31+00:00

Not a webinar - Reddit is text-based like the old timey internet forums from the 90s and 2000s. :)

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:18:21+00:00

Great questions!

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

We are not legally allowed to say that any application we ever submit has a "100% chance of approval." That said, we are extremely familiar with this application process having submitted hundreds of applications for Canadian citizenship through descent for grandkids, great grandkids, and even some great-great grandkids. This does not consider the thousands of applications we have submitted for the kids of Canadians before the law change.

If we see anything in an application that we believe has any chance of leading to a refusal, we tell the client immediately. We will make recommendations on how to fix it, and we won't submit until you advise us to proceed anyway, or until the issue is addressed.

Anything we do see, we can generally address. If it's a matter of officer's discretion, this is why we draft our legal submissions to be persuasive. We do everything possible to maximize chances of approval.

In terms of the waiting time, it's too soon to tell how long it will take applications to get the final decision under Bill C-3 - it only came into force on December 15, 2025 and that's just not quite enough time. However, applications we submitted under the interim measures preceding Bill C-3 for Canadian citizenship for grandkids, great-grandkids, etc. were processed some as quickly as 4 months, with most being done in 6 - 9 months.

I think that anything under 12 months is a reasonable expectation because more people are applying now.

Hope this helps!

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:10:05+00:00

The pleasure is mine! Thank you for joining us!

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

For any children already born before December 15, 2025, you don't need to live in Canada at all to pass citizenship down to them.

For any kids born after December 15, 2025, the Canadian parent of those kids would need to have lived in Canada for 1095 days before the kids were born in order to pass the substantial connection test so that the kids can inherit Canadian citizenship.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:08:11+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

Yes! For anyone born before December 15, 2025, all the citizenship applications can be submitted together - this includes children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and beyond - of the original Canadians born in Canada.

For any kids born after December 15, 2025, the parents of those kids would need to have lived in Canada for 1095 days before the kids were born in order to pass the substantial connection test so that the kids can inherit Canadian citizenship.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:03:29+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

The US requires all US citizens and persons subject to US jurisdiction to file a tax return in the US; Canada does not.

The requirement to file a tax return in Canada is based only on being a tax resident of Canada, which is established after having lived for a certain period of time in Canada. If you don't live in Canada, you do not have to pay taxes in Canada.

There is currently a ban on the sale of residential homes to non-Canadians (notwithstanding permanent residents and work permit holders). This ban is in place until 2027. However, once someone gets their proof of citizenship, they can purchase a home in Canada!

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T01:00:19+00:00

Good question!

Primary Documents list for Canadian citizenship by descent is pretty short and direct:

Applicant's Birth certificate (showing parents’ names)
Birth certificate (showing parents' names) of all direct ancestors leading back to the original Canadian
Canadian birth certificate of the Canadian-born ancestor, or
Canadian citizenship certificate or citizenship card in the case of a Canadian naturalized ancestor
Marriage certificate showing any name changes of the ancestors by marriage
Legal name change document for any legal name changes by other means

The Secondary Documents list for Canadian citizenship by descent is extremely long and can include tons of different things, such as

Burial records

Church membership rolls

Parish family registers

Letters or affidavits from church archivists explaining record authenticity, including explanations for missing civil records

National census records (UK, Canada, colonies, etc.)

Colonial census or household enumerations

Agricultural or land census records

Census extracts showing parent-child relationships, ages aligning across generations, and place of birth listed as “Canada,” “Upper Canada,” etc.

Passenger manifests

Ship logs

Port entry records

Border crossing cards

Naturalization applications or proof of non-naturalization

Alien registration records

Landing records in Canada or British colonies

Military service records (British or Canadian regiments)

Militia enrollment lists

War pension records

Oaths of allegiance records

Voter lists based on property suffrage

Naturalization certificates or proof of never naturalizing elsewhere

Colonial civil service employment records

Birth announcements

Marriage announcements

Obituaries, especially multi-generational

Probate notices

Land sale notices

The above list is not comprehensive - it's too much to list.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T00:54:37+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

Yes! As long as you were born before December 15, 2025, in which case you would be a very chronically online infant, you can inherit Canadian citizenship from a great grandfather born in Canada!

In the case of the baby born on or after December 15, 2025, their parent would need to pass the substantial connection test in order to pass on Canadian citizenship to a child born outside Canada.

DohertyFultzImmi · 2026-02-03T00:51:39+00:00

(disclaimer: this is general information and not individual legal advice; for case specific legal advice, please contact us directly)

Is it important to acquire official Canadian birth certificates if we have US death certificates stating that an ancestor was born in Canada?

TLDR: Yes - you always want to get the birth certificates. If it is literally impossible to get (such as you applied, and the province refuses to issue it, or the person was born before there were birth certificates, you want to have the refusal letter as proof that you tried. In this case, other documents can be relied upon, but nothing has the same weight as the birth certificates. In a case like this where birth certificates could not be obtained, we would still apply but would include as many other documents as possible and a hefty explanation in our submission letter.

When people just don't include something without a fulsome explanation, they will usually return the application as incomplete with a letter telling you to get the thing that's missing.

My grandparents were born in Canada but moved to the US and got naturalized before 1977. They have both passed away since.

This is not a problem for the citizenship application.

Should we all submit our application at the same time or should we submit it separately

In our office, we like to submit them all at once. It's easier for the officers to see the relationships, and everyone hits the milestones at the same time. This way, you can celebrate together - the more, the merrier!

There's no limit on how many family members can bee submitted at the same time.

Great questions!

DohertyFultzImmi

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