If your parent was born in the United States and your grandparent was born in Canada, you are a Canadian citizen under Bill C-3. Before December 15, 2025, that was not true. A provision called the first-generation limit blocked the citizenship chain at exactly this point for sixteen years. Understanding what it was, and why it is gone, explains why millions of Americans have a valid citizenship claim that simply did not exist a year ago.
What Was the First-Generation Limit?
The first-generation limit was a rule in the Canadian Citizenship Act that prevented Canadian citizens born outside Canada from passing citizenship to their own children born outside Canada.
A Canadian born in the US could pass citizenship to their first child born in the US. But that child, also born in the US, could not pass citizenship to the next generation born in the US. The chain stopped after one generation abroad, regardless of how clearly the ancestry could be documented.
The rule was introduced by Bill C-37, which came into force on April 17, 2009. The government framed it as a safeguard against "Canadians of convenience," people with weak ties who would accumulate citizenship across generations without any real connection to Canada.
Before the Limit: The Section 8 Retention Rules
The system that preceded the first-generation limit was different in mechanism but similar in effect. Under the 1977 Citizenship Act, second-generation Canadians born abroad were automatically Canadian at birth but had to apply to retain their citizenship before their 28th birthday under Section 8. Miss the deadline and citizenship lapsed on your 28th birthday.
When Bill C-37 replaced the retention system in 2009, it abolished the age-28 deadline but introduced the first-generation limit in its place. One restriction replaced another.
Who the Rule Cut Off
The impact was extensive. Consider this scenario:
Diane was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1938. She moved to Ohio in 1963, and her son Robert was born in Columbus in 1965. Under the 1977 Act, Robert was Canadian at birth, the first generation born abroad. Robert's daughter Lisa was born in Cincinnati in 1991.
Under the first-generation limit introduced in 2009, Lisa was not Canadian. Robert was the first generation born abroad, and that rule barred him from passing citizenship to children who were also born abroad. The chain ended at Robert.
Lisa was 18 when the limit took effect. There was nothing she could do.
The Broader Impact
The limit affected every case where both a parent and child were born outside Canada, not just two-generation chains. A great-grandchild or great-great-grandchild of a Canadian had the same problem: once the chain hit two consecutive generations born outside Canada, it stopped. Longer ancestry chains created more opportunities for the chain to be cut, simply by spanning more generations.
The Court Case That Cracked the Rule Open
Seven Canadian families challenged the first-generation limit in Ontario's courts. On December 19, 2023, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled in Bjorkquist et al. v. Attorney General of Canada that the rule was unconstitutional.
The court found it violated both Section 15 (equality rights) and Section 6 (mobility rights) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It created, in the court's phrase, "a lesser class of citizenship" that discriminated based on birthplace, a fact no one can control. The second-generation cut-off was struck down.
On January 22, 2024, the federal government announced it would not appeal the decision.
What Bill C-3 Changed
Parliament codified the court's ruling into statute. Bill C-3 received Royal Assent on November 20, 2025, and came into effect on December 15, 2025.
For anyone born before December 15, 2025, the first-generation limit no longer applies. Canadian citizenship passes through every generation in the ancestry chain, with no cutoff at the second generation abroad. Lisa, born in Cincinnati in 1991, is now Canadian. Her claim existed from the moment Bill C-3 took effect.
If You Were Born After December 15, 2025
The calculus changes for people born on or after December 15, 2025. A Canadian parent born abroad must satisfy a 1,095-day physical presence requirement before passing citizenship to a child also born abroad. That rule exists to ensure the next generation forward has a genuine Canadian connection. It does not reach back to cut off anyone already born before that date. The full details of who the 1,095-day rule applies to are covered in a separate guide.
Applying Under the New Rules
If your family was blocked by the first-generation limit before 2025, you now have a valid claim. The process is the same regardless of how many generations your chain spans:
- File a CIT 0001 (Application for a Citizenship Certificate).
- Document every link in the chain: certified birth certificates and marriage certificates wherever names change.
- Pay the $75 CAD fee by online receipt. No cheques, no money orders.
The documentation requirements do not increase because of chain length. A five-generation chain needs five sets of documents, not special legal justification for spanning more than two generations abroad. For ancestry chains stretching back to great-grandparents or further, the key is tracing each parent-to-child link and confirming the Canadian ancestor was a citizen at the time the next generation was born.
MaplePass walks through your full ancestry chain in under two minutes and confirms whether you qualify before you spend time gathering documents.