Law offers new path for Canadian passport
By: Michelle Del Rey
USA Today
..... A change to Canada's Citizenship Act has Americans with family ties north of the border checking to see if they qualify for new passport.
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The renewed interest follows a recent update to the law that expands who can claim citizenship by descent, easing generational cutoffs that had blocked eligibility for decades. As a result, many Americans with Canadian parents or grandparents are double-checking birth certificates, census data and old records to see if they qualify.
..... To qualify, applicants must be "grandfathered" in, meaning at least one parent must already be considered a Canadian citizen by descent. Audrey Mackin, a law professor at the University of Toronto told USA Today.
..... the change applies only to people born before December 15, 2025. Going forward, Canadian parents of children born or adopted abroad beyond the first generation must have lived in Canada for at least three years before the child's birth or adoption for citizenship to pass on, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.
..... A person must be able to document their family connection to Canada with official records. Applicants typically must provide birth, marriage and death certificates, along with immigration or census records showing a direct line to a Canadian-born ancestor.
..... Also, eligibility does not guarantee approval. Experts say the process can be document-heavy and time p consuming, with citizenship applications taking months to process.
..... Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in an email to USA Today the agency received about 12,430 proof of citizenship applicants from people around the world between December 15, 2025 and January 31. [2026] Nearly 3,000 of the individuals applying were confirmed to be Canadian citizens as a result of the new law.
..... Proving citizenship by descent, however, can be a "bureaucratic nightmare," Macklin said, depending on how far back applicants must truce their lineage.
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Even after submitting paperwork, applicants face long waits. The estimated preprocessing time for citizenship applications is about 10 months, according to the agency.
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The Canadian government is pointing would-be applicants to genealogical resources as demand surges.
.... Library and Archives Canada holds census records and limited collections of birth, marriage, death and immigration documents - materials that are often critical to citizenship applications because they can confirm whether an ancestor was born in Canada.
..... For people struggling to locate records, the agency also offers access to research specialists who can help with searches or refer applicants to the archives that may hold relevant documents, some dating back centuries.
..... Meghan Laidlaw, acting director of client services at Library and Archives Canada, said Online searches for records have jumped sharply since the law changed. In the final three months of 2025, the library averaged about 12,000 hits a day. That number has since risen to 60,000.
..... Many of the library's genealogical records are available Online and in person, but applicants shouldn't expect to find everything in one place.
.... "We'll try to help make the process as easy as possible, but that can be sometimes frustrating if someone comes and expects to find everything here," Laidlaw said.