https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-citizenship/act-changes/rules-2025.html

This means that in most cases you’re automatically a Canadian citizen if you were born

• before December 15, 2025
• outside Canada to a Canadian parent

This rule also applies to you if you were born to someone who became Canadian because of these rule changes.

Holy shit, I might be a Canadian citizen!

My genealogy might finally pay off! I have a lot of French Canadians back in my family tree. Now to track down the documents to prove it

This is real! I'm one of these people and my family is working on assembling the documentation!

My brother lives an hour from the border, is that close enough?!?

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-citizenship/act-changes.html

What if my ex was 1/4 Canadian? Do I have to re-marry her?

I did my genealogy a couple of summers ago, and found out that my maternal grandmother's family came from Canada to Syracuse for factory work, in the late 19th century.

I am definitely going to be looking into this.

Come, friends.

I like poutine. Will that work?

That includes great, great grandparents.

Two of my great, great grandparents (my grandfather's grandparents) were born in Canada. Reading through the law, I'm having trouble identifying exactly where this makes me eligible. Can I ask for a bit of help pointed in the right direction?

I have my birth certificate linking me to my father, his birth certificate linking him to my grandfather. Then US census records linking my grandfather to my great grandmother, and US census records linking her to her (Canadian born) parents. I guess I need to find proof of their Canadian births…

Damn. My wife and I were just talking about this. My Great grandmother was Canadian and I thought it was too far out for me to consider going for citizenship.

I didn't qualify as a kid (which is interesting because one of the things I was considering was moving to Montreal for university which would probably have lead to a very different life than I have now), but the law changes allowed me to later claim citizenship (under the 2009 change, IIRC). There is (or at least was when I did) a fair amount of documentation to write and provide about all your relatives so be ready for that.

Oh, that's interesting. My father had our lineage researched and learned that an ancestor took the side of the British during the USA revolutionary war. He had to move to Canada after the colonies won their independence due to a campaign of harassment in which his barn was burned down.

The most interesting thing about it before now was that someone in my family history had supported the other team. Now it might have actual bearing on my life instead of just being a fun story.

I am a 4th generation Canadian. I guess I am safe.

wait what. fuck yes. i have easy access to all of these. original birth certs back four generations. what's this law

I just wanted to add that many countries have similar ancestor laws allowing you to apply for citizenship if you have any roots there. It’s not always easy - but at least you may have an “in” that others would not. So if you think you have a grandfather who immigrated from somewhere or other, look it up and see if you might be able to get on a path to citizenship there. My wife did this earlier this year, and all it took was some paperwork and a visit to a consulate with her parents.

Do you have a source to read more?

Is it easy to become canadian in general