🍁 civid v1

Status

• The Act received royal assent on November 20, 2025. It comes into force on a day set by order of the Governor in Council; the provided text does not give that date.

Citizenship Act changes

• People born abroad before commencement: The Act extends citizenship by descent to people born outside Canada before it comes into force to a Canadian-citizen parent. It also restores citizenship to people who lost it because they did not apply to retain it under former section 8, or their application was refused.
• People born abroad after commencement: Citizenship by descent can extend beyond the first generation born abroad if a Canadian-citizen parent was physically present in Canada for at least 1,095 days before the birth. The test applies in the circumstances specified in the Act.
• People adopted abroad: Those adopted before commencement by a Canadian-citizen parent can be granted citizenship under section 5.1. For adoptions after commencement, the Act permits grants beyond the first generation where a Canadian-citizen adoptive parent meets the 1,095-day physical-presence test before the adoption.
• Deceased parents: A parent’s—or, in specified cases, both a parent’s and grandparent’s—death before commencement does not prevent citizenship or an adoption-related grant where they would otherwise have become citizens under the Act. A child born after a parent’s death is treated as born before that death for specified citizenship rules.
• Past renunciations: The amendments retain exclusions in specified circumstances for people who previously renounced citizenship or made a declaration of alienage.
• Renunciation process: The Act extends the regulation-making provision for a simplified renunciation process to certain people born before commencement who become citizens because of the Act and had not previously become citizens by grant.

Costs and deadlines

• The text specifies no costs. Apart from the commencement date to be set by order, it states no implementation deadline.