Based on coverage from The Indian Express, CBC News, The Economic Times, Global News, and Business Standard.
Canada’s citizenship-by-descent rollout under Bill C-3 just got a lot stricter on paperwork, and the timing is no accident. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) updated its Document Checklist (Form CIT 0014) on June 17, 2026, telling applicants they cannot rely only on third-party genealogy records like Ancestry.ca or FamilySearch printouts to prove their claim. For people already scrambling to assemble family documents across multiple generations, that’s a major shift.
Bill C-3, often called the “Lost Canadians” law, became law after Royal Assent on Nov. 20, 2025, and took effect Dec. 15, 2025. It removed the first-generation limit on citizenship by descent, allowing Canadians born abroad to pass citizenship to children also born abroad, as long as applicants can prove lineage generation by generation.
IRCC tightens citizenship-by-descent proof rules
The new checklist language sets out three core expectations: every document must be authentic, reliable, and verifiable for each generation in the application; applicants can’t build a case solely on third-party records; and supporting documents should come from the original authority that created or holds them, such as a civil registry, provincial/territorial vital statistics office, or another official archive.
IRCC also added a warning to its online guide aimed directly at genealogy-platform habits: if you found a record on a genealogy site, an official version likely exists, and you should request it from the original issuing authority.
Bill C-3 “Lost Canadians” law context
The policy shift lands in a program that has drawn a huge number of applicants, many of them Americans tracing Canadian parentage or grandparentage. A spokesperson for the minister’s office has said about 4,100 people have been confirmed as Canadian citizens under the Bill C-3 amendment since it took effect.
The stakes are high because the whole point of Bill C-3 was to widen access. The new documentation demands do not change who qualifies under the law, but they raise the bar on what IRCC will accept as proof.
Surrender letters and internal review spark backlash
The checklist update follows a messy few weeks inside IRCC. Over the weekend of June 13 to 14, IRCC sent “surrender letters” to what the department described as “a few dozen” people who had already received citizenship certificates, asking them to return those certificates for review.
Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab has defended the approach as necessary for “documentary integrity.” Immigration lawyers have publicly pushed back, arguing applicants relied in good faith on IRCC’s published instructions, which included an “any other evidence” category. They’ve pointed to Federal Court cases including Thompson v. Canada (2021 FC 914) and Somers-Edgar v. Canada (2026 FC 417) on the need for clear instructions and fair treatment.
IRCC said in a June 18 statement it has temporarily paused finalising some citizenship-by-descent applications while it conducts an internal review, and that it is “reviewing how this occurred” while taking steps to ensure files are assessed fairly and lawfully.
What applicants should expect in 2026 queue
The backlog is growing fast. As of June 10, 2026, about 82,000 people were waiting for citizenship certificate applications to be processed, up from 70,400 in May and 56,000 in April. IRCC data shows processing times rising from five months in May 2025 to 15 months now.
IRCC has not clearly said whether the June 17 checklist standards apply retroactively to people already in the queue. Still, applicants who leaned heavily on genealogy printouts are being advised to supplement their file with certified copies from original authorities before a decision is made.
If primary records truly can’t be obtained, IRCC says applicants should explain why in writing and show proof they tried, such as correspondence confirming records don’t exist. The department lists alternative evidence that can help in some cases, including hospital birth records, records from a physician or midwife present at birth, certified baptismal records, census records, and boat manifests.
Real-life impact: some citizenship restored
The uncertainty isn’t theoretical. The Canadian Press reported that, a week after surrender letters went out, a few people received emails from IRCC reconfirming their citizenship after a “thorough review.” One recipient, Bridget Burnett, said she, her mother, and her son had their citizenship confirmed again after being told to surrender their certificates. She also described calling IRCC and getting little clarity on why the review happened in the first place.
For Canadians and would-be Canadians abroad, the practical message is simple: eligibility under Bill C-3 may be broader than before, but IRCC now wants a cleaner paper trail, and it’s willing to reopen files when it thinks the trail doesn’t hold up.
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