Pledging allegiance to ice hockey, Celine Dion and poutine has just become easier for U.S. citizens.
Late last year, the Canadian government amended the Citizenship Act to grant Canadian citizenshipto a wider pool of people seeking dual citizenship through their family lineage. Before the revised law went into effect on Dec. 15, the country limited Canadian citizenship to the first-generation children of a Canadian parent. Now, all generations who were born outside of Canada and have direct Canadian ancestry can become Canadian citizens, as long as they possess the correct documents and fall within the correct legal provisions.
“The grandkids can get citizenship, and the great-grandkids can get citizenship from Canada, even if they never set foot in Canada,” said Basil Mohr-Elzeki, managing partner at Henley & Partners, a firm that specializes in residency and citizenship planning.
The rule stems from a December 2023 decision by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that deemed the first-generation cutoff unconstitutional. The law restores citizenship to those beyond the first generation born abroad.
“This means that in most cases you’re automatically a Canadian citizen if you were born before Dec. 15, 2025, outside Canada to a Canadian parent,” the government’s immigration and citizenship division states on its website.
A slightly different criteria applies to children born after Dec. 15. To qualify, the Canadian parent must spend at least 1,095 days in Canada before the child’s birth.
The perks of dual citizenship
Dual citizens share many of the same rights and benefits as Canadian Canadians. (Some perks, such as universal health care, require residency.) They can live and work in the country (by comparison, tourists can’t stay longer than six months and must acquire a work visa or permit), vote and study under the universal education system, paying no or reduced tuition.
They can also obtain a passport that grants them visa-free access in countries that do not extend the same exemption to U.S. citizens, such as China and Belarus. In addition, depending on the geopolitics in your destination, a Canadian passport might be less polarizing.
“On the global scale, Canada doesn’t get as much limelight or pressure as the United States, so having the alternative Canada passport can certainly be a benefit,” Mohr-Elzeki said. “And in the event of travel restrictions on U.S. passports, they can always pick up their Canadian passport and travel the world.”
Jacqueline Rose Bart, managing partner and a certified immigration law specialist with Bartlaw LLP in Toronto, said inquiries increased when President Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, spiked after he was reelected in 2024 and rose again in December, when the government loosened its citizenship rules. She said 95 percent of her firm’s clients applying for citizenship under the new law are U.S. nationals or citizens.
“This time, it’s been absolutely insane,” Bart said. “It’s been nonstop on immigration, and now with citizenship, it’s been nonstop with citizenship.”
Other countries tighten restrictions
Canada is swimming against the tide of countries tightening requirements.
Italy, much to the dismay of the great-grandchildren of nonnas and nonnos, passed a law in March 2025 restricting citizenship to only the descendants of a parent or grandparent. According to the Italian Consulate in Los Angeles, Italy will bestow citizenship to a descendant whose parent is an Italian citizen born in Italy or abroad and lived in Italy for at least two consecutive years before the applicant’s birth, or whose grandparent is an Italian citizen born in Italy.
“Everyone wants that citizenship, but the experience is that the consulate is much more difficult,” Mohr-Elzeki said. “You have to prove ties to the country.”
Romania has also raised the bar, Mohr-Elzeki said, requiring applicants older than 18 to be proficient in the national language. For years, Hungary has enforced a strict language requirement, he said, a growing trend in Europe for citizenship by descent.
“In the event you’re eligible for any citizenship-by-descent route, I would suggest moving soon because it’s likely not going to get easier,” he said.
Canada, by comparison, is a breeze, especially for applicants with a Canadian ancestor whose documents don’t require a genealogical deep dive or a Rosetta stone to decipher. Eligible adults can apply online for 75 Canadian dollars (about $50).
A surge of applications
Since the change in qualifications, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has experienced a bump in applications. In January, the agency said it received 8,897 applications, up from 5,940 a year ago. Between Dec. 15, 2025, and Jan. 31, it processed about 6,280 applications, out of 12,430 received, and confirmed 1,480 new citizens by descent under the new act.
The IRCC said the processing period is about 10 months. Bart said more complicated cases, such as ones requiring DNA testing and assistance from the firm’s staff genealogist, can stretch for years. A straightforward application takes about a year or more, unless it is expedited, in which case it can take as little as a few weeks. Bart warned, however, that the wait time could grow exponentially with the recent high demand.
“Processing is really becoming backlogged because so many people are wanting to qualify,” she said.
The government agency, which posts the estimated processing time online, also shares the number of people awaiting a decision — 56,300 on April 7.
If Canadians are worried about an influx of new citizens, they shouldn’t be. Peter Spiro, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, does not anticipate a rush of newly minted Canadians crossing the border.
Spiro, who specializes in international, immigration and constitutional law, describes dual citizenship as a form of insurance. You may never have to use your second citizenship, he said, but in case you need it, Canada will always welcome you home.
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