Recent changes to citizenship laws seek to
protect the value of Canadian citizenship. The new law was passed by
Parliament in spring 2008 and comes into effect on April 17, 2009. It will
simplify citizenship rules. It will also ensure that Canadian citizenship
is not passed down endlessly through generations living outside Canada.
With few exceptions, the ability to acquire citizenship by descent will
be limited to people born in the first generation outside Canada.
The limitation to citizenship by descent means that once the new law comes into
effect, children born outside of Canada will be Canadian at birth if one of
their parents was born in Canada or naturalized in Canada (this includes
adopted persons who went through the immigration process and then became
citizens).
To preserve fairness, the limitation to citizenship by descent will apply equally to children born outside Canada to a Canadian parent and children adopted outside Canada by a Canadian parent and granted citizenship through the new adoption provisions which came into effect in December 2007. This means that any children both groups of persons may have outside of Canada will not be eligible to claim Canadian citizenship through them (although they may be eligible to claim through the other parent, if that parent was born or naturalized in Canada).