Canada decided to amend its Citizenship Act, widening the scope of who can become a Canadian citizen in a relief to many Indian-origin residents at a time when Indians are facing hard times in the US owing to the crackdown of the Donald Trump administration. Bill C-3 would allow a Canadian parent who was not born in Canada to pass on citizenship to children born abroad beyond the first generation. This would be applicable to even child adopted abroad and beyond the first generation. But the parent must have a substantial connection to Canada which means he or she must have stayed in Canada for cumulative 1095 days, three years, before the birth or the adoption of the child. The bill would also benefit ‘lost Canadians’, a term that refers to those who lost Canadian citizenship or were denied a Canadian citizenship before due to certain provisions of the former citizenship law. “Most cases were remedied by changes to the law in 2009 and 2015. These changes allowed people to gain Canadian citizenship or get back the citizenship they lost. Despite this, additional amendments are needed to include other categories of “Lost Canadians” and their descendants who did not benefit from the 2009 and 2015 changes,” the government said. “Bill C-3 will restore citizenship to remaining “Lost Canadians,” their descendants and anyone who was born abroad to a Canadian parent in the second or subsequent generations before the legislation comes into force. This includes people who lost their citizenship as a result of requirements under the former section 8 of the Citizenship Act,” it said. The present citizenship law has a first-generation limit which means a Canadian parent can only pass on Canadian citizenship to a child born outside Canada if the parent was either born or naturalized in Canada before the birth of the child. Because of this limitation, Canadian citizens who were born outside Canada and obtained their citizenship through descent cannot pass on citizenship to their child born outside Canada, and cannot apply for a direct grant of citizenship for a child adopted outside Canada.
