Why millions of New Englanders may now be eligible for 'proof' they are Canadian citizens

Before Bill C-3, popularly known as the “Lost Canadians Act” came into effect in late December 2025, Canada’s citizenship law limited passing on citizenship to the first-generation of people born or adopted abroad to a Canadian parent.

Subsequent descendants of Canadian citizens were cut off from their birthright because their Canadian parents had also been born abroad.

Responding to to a December 2023 decision by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice , Bjorkquist et al. v. Attorney General of Canada, which found the “first-generation limit” to passing on Canadian citizenship unconstitutional, the new legislation may open the door to Canadian citizenship for millions of people descended from Canadians.

Bill C-3 allows citizenship to flow beyond the first generation born or adopted abroad, ultimately recognizing an entire chain of descendants, as long as there is a Canadian citizen who anchors the chain with at least 1,095 days (three years) of cumulative physical presence in Canada. The descendants will automatically be new citizens, able to obtain proof of Canadian citizenship , rather than having to apply for citizenship.

Patrick White, a journalism professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal, points to significant interest in obtaining Canadian citizenship by the descendants of French Canadians who migrated from Quebec to New England.

“I see a genuine interest in Facebook groups associated to Franco Americans,” White said in an email to National Post. One group, based in Maine , posted news about the new legislation in early February.

“Close to one million French Canadians left Québec between 1840 and 1930,” says White, citing Franco-American historian, David Vermette, who described the migration in his book, Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans .

Their descendants “now represent almost 10 million Americans,” says White. “The current climate in the U.S. is leading many of them to inquire about the possible acquisition of Canadian citizenship because of the changes made here in December. This is a ‘Plan B’ for them.”

Though, “it’s too early to say” if there how many will be applying, he adds.

Amandeep Hayer, a Vancouver immigration lawyer and co-author of a book on maintaining permanent residence and obtaining citizenship in Canada , says Canadian citizenship law has had a series of roadblocks to Canadian citizenship. For example, neither married women, nor unmarried men could pass on their Canadian citizenship to their children until citizenship law reforms that passed in 1977.

“So, the solution,” Hayer said in an email to National Post, “is a single set of uniform rules moving forward that are blind to gender and martial status and do not require parents to go through a convoluted process to make and maintain Canadian citizenship for their child.”

There has been “a noticeable increase” in the number of people from the U.S. seeking Canadian citizenship, says Hayer. Other countries include Japan, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. “But it has been overwhelmingly American, 95 per cent.”

More information about the process can be found in the citizenship section of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada website .

• A third of Canadians want dual citizenships, about the same amount question the loyalty of dual citizens: poll
• In an independent Quebec more than half the population wants to keep their Canadian citizenship: poll

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