By: Kate Bowley, Practice Development Supervisor
Many individuals continue to reach out to our office to inquire about the impending changes to the “first generation” limit to Canadian citizenship. After the Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down this limit in December 2023, finding it to be unconstitutional for violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, then-Minister of Immigration, Marc Miller, announced that the government would not be appealing this decision.
Since this announcement in January 2024, immigration professionals and potential Canadians alike have waited with bated breath for the new policy, proposed under former Bill C-71, to be released. After multiple extensions of time to produce the updated policy, we were hopeful that the wait would be over today, March 19, 2025.
Unfortunately, we will be waiting at least 4 more weeks, according to the latest decision in the litigation of Bjorkquist et al. v Attorney General of Canada. With the prorogation of parliament and the anticipated call for a Federal election, it is unclear whether the new deadline of April 25, 2025 will be met. Still, we remain hopeful that these potential new pathways to Canadian citizenship will be announced, giving many “Lost Canadians” the opportunity to call Canada home.
In the meantime, interim measures have been put in place for those who have been locked-out of Canadian citizenship by the unconstitutional policy. According to an announcement from the IRCC on March 13, 2025,
Individuals in the following groups will be offered consideration for a discretionary grant of citizenship under subsection 5(4) of the Act:
· those born or adopted before December 19, 2023, who are subject to the first-generation limit
· those born or adopted on or after December 19, 2023, if their Canadian parent had at least 1,095 cumulative days of physical presence in Canada before their birth or adoption (they will be offered consideration for a discretionary grant on a prioritized basis)
· certain individuals born before April 1, 1949, who remain affected by the first-generation limit
· those who lost their citizenship under the former section 8 of the Citizenship Act due to unmet retention requirements
To check if you qualify under any of these interim measures, you can follow IRCC’s eligibility questionnaire. Included in the options for discretionary grants of citizenship, some individuals may apply for an urgent citizenship certificate based on reasons such as avoiding situations of potential harm or hardship due to a variety of factors, including sexual orientation or gender identity or expression.
Individuals applying for urgent processing will still be required to establish that they are the child of a parent who was born outside of Canada to a Canadian parent (their grandparent). Because these interim measures are so new, we have yet to see how the officers reviewing these applications will exercise their discretion in decision making.
The double-edged sword of immigration law is that it is constantly evolving and changing—at times in ways that restrict pathways for new immigrants, at other times in ways that are expansive, creating new opportunities for people to migrate to Canada. Our team is attentive to these changes, keeping our finger on the pulse so that our clients don’t have to.
To explore whether you may be able to apply for Canadian citizenship via these interim measures in anticipation of April 25, contact us to arrange a consultation by emailing Reception@MigrationLawGroup.com.
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