Ellen Arthur, a 79-year-old retired household lawyer in Lexington, Va., has many years of expertise digging up private data for her shoppers. However surfacing a century-old baptismal ledger stored by a Catholic church in Montreal, the place her mom was born, was a primary.
That dusty outdated report is what Ms. Arthur is leaning on to hunt Canadian citizenship for her two grownup sons.
They’re amongst hundreds of Individuals utilizing a brand new stipulation in Canada’s citizenship guidelines that got here into impact in December, underneath which individuals who can show a direct Canada-born ancestor — a grandparent, great-grandparent, or somebody even additional again — can formally turn out to be Canadian.
Ms. Arthur had already been eligible for citizenship because the daughter of a Canada-born Canadian, however had not pursued it. Beneath the outdated coverage, know because the first-generation rule, her sons wouldn’t have been capable of inherit citizenship as a result of neither she, nor they, had been born in Canada.
Now, the entry to being Canadian can theoretically stretch generations again, if one can show they’re a direct descendant of somebody born in Canada.
And whereas the method is official and Ms. Arthur’s case has been stalled by clerical and administrative hiccups, it’s already attracting hopeful Canadians, most from the USA.
The variety of profitable functions by U.S. nationals for Canadian citizenship by descent rose by practically 50 p.c in January in contrast with January 2025, to 2,470 from 1,715, based on information from the Canadian immigration ministry. It was the primary month for which information was obtainable for the reason that new guidelines got here into impact.
The modifications got here because of a authorized marketing campaign by a small variety of households residing overseas who had been unable to move down Canadian citizenship due to the first-generation stipulation. Following a courtroom ruling, Canada expanded citizenship to the descendants of Canadians born exterior the nation earlier than Dec. 15, 2025.
For youngsters born or adopted overseas after Dec. 15 by a foreign-born Canadian mother or father, the mother or father must have lived in Canada for at the least three years earlier than the kid’s start or adoption, to have the ability to move the citizenship to them.
The change may lengthen Canadian citizenship to “doubtlessly hundreds of thousands of individuals world wide, a lot of whom have by no means lived in Canada and will have solely a distant ancestral tie to it,” mentioned Rick Lamanna, a Toronto-based associate at Fragomen, a worldwide immigration and relocation firm.
The brand new coverage, he added, stood in distinction each to these of different superior economies in search of to restrict immigration, and to the Canada’s personal important tightening of different immigration routes.
Within the final two years, Canada has slashed the numbers of international college students, short-term staff and the variety of everlasting residents. That has already resulted in Canada’s population shrinking.
The coverage increasing who can qualify for Canadian citizenship additionally stands in stark distinction to the evolving discourse about who ought to be American in the USA, the place President Trump desires to see even birthright citizenship curtailed.
Amongst developed economies, Canada now has one of the inclusive guidelines on passing down citizenship era to era.
Till 2024, Italy supplied citizenship by descent with none generational restrict, a path many Individuals utilized, nevertheless it has since limited citizenship to individuals with an Italian mother or father or grandparent.
Solely a handful of different nations have in recent times broadened their citizenship to individuals with extra distant ancestry, together with Portugal and Slovakia, however with some limitations.
The burden of proof to pursue this new path to turning into Canadian remains to be important, a spokesman for the Canadian immigration ministry mentioned, significantly because it may require deep archival analysis and recovering paperwork that might be greater than a century outdated.
“Whereas these latest modifications prolonged entry to Canadian citizenship by descent, having distant Canadian ancestry alone doesn’t make somebody mechanically eligible,” mentioned Matthew Krupovich, a spokesman for the immigration ministry.
Paperwork that meet the bar for the Canadian authorities can embody start certificates, citizenship or naturalization certificates, or different official data exhibiting household relationships and citizenship standing, however not info gleaned from genetic testing.
There may be early proof that the brand new guidelines are already spurring increased demand for historic data. The Nova Scotia Archives, for instance, has seen a pointy improve in requests for official copies of historic data, from about 260 requests in all of 2024 to about 1,500 in simply the primary three months of 2026, mentioned John Macleod, a supervisor on the archives.
Nonetheless, the numbers for the primary few weeks for the reason that modifications have gone into impact additionally spotlight that most individuals fail to safe citizenship. Between Dec. 15 and Jan. 31, about 6,280 functions for proof of citizenship had been processed by the Canadian authorities. Of these, 1,480 had been confirmed as residents by descent underneath the brand new guidelines, the immigration ministry mentioned.
The motivation behind pursuing Canadian citizenship varies from individual to individual. For Ms. Arthur, the political scenario in the USA has made her really feel she doesn’t acknowledge her nation any extra.
“The requirements and values that I believed we held — equality for all, no matter shade, race, intercourse — that’s gone,” Ms. Arthur mentioned. “I would like my sons to have that choice, to maneuver to Canada if this nation continues to show in a fascist route,” she added.
Ms. Arthur feels she could also be too outdated to maneuver at her age, however desires her kids to have the ability to avail themselves of it. “I’m actually attempting to pave the best way for them,” she mentioned.
For others, turning into Canadian is extra about reconnecting to roots.
Roughly 900,000 French Canadians left Quebec between 1840 and 1930 for work alternatives throughout New England’s speedy industrialization.
Within the mid 1700s, some 10,000 French settlers, referred to as Acadians, in Canada’s Atlantic provinces had been expelled for refusing to take an oath of allegiance to Britain.
That’s how the ancestors of Michelle Beauregard-Castoro, 55, ended up in Louisiana.
Ms. Beauregard-Castoro, a catastrophe aid marketing consultant who now lives in Bay St. Louis, Miss., felt deeply related to Canada within the technique of unearthing her household’s historical past.
“The connection was damaged 300 years in the past and it’s time to convey it again collectively,” she mentioned.
She typically wonders what her household can be like if her ancestors weren’t expelled by the British.
“I really feel prefer it’s essential to have the household again in Canada,” she mentioned, “and if that’s by means of a passport for me, so be it.”
