Nacimiento en Canadá (jus soli)

CA-BTH-01 es la ruta jus soli (derecho del suelo) hacia la ciudadanía canadiense. Según el artículo 3(1)(a) de la Ley de ciudadanía, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29, una persona es ciudadana si nace en Canadá después del 14 de febrero de 1977. La ciudadanía surge automáticamente y por ministerio de la ley en el momento del nacimiento; no se requiere solicitud, juramento ni concesión, y el estado migratorio de los padres es irrelevante. Un hijo de visitantes, estudiantes extranjeros, trabajadores extranjeros temporales, solicitantes de refugio o personas indocumentadas es igualmente ciudadano si nace en suelo canadiense. La única excepción legal, en el artículo 3(2), elimina por poco la ciudadanía de los hijos de ciertos diplomáticos/consulares/funcionarios de la ONU extranjeros cuando ninguno de los padres era ciudadano o residente permanente. Los nacimientos en embarcaciones y aeronaves registradas en Canadá se consideran nacimientos en Canadá (s.2(2)(a)). Canadá es uno de los dos únicos estados del G7 (junto con Estados Unidos) que conserva un ius soli casi absoluto. La reforma de la ascendencia de 2025 (Proyecto de ley C-3, S.C. 2025, c. 5, vigente desde el 15 de diciembre de 2025) NO tocó el artículo 3(1)(a) ni el artículo 3(2); la ciudadanía por nacimiento en el suelo es estable a partir del 1 de junio de 2026.

The eligibility test is singular and factual: the person must have been born in Canada (or on a deemed-Canada conveyance under s.2(2)(a)) after 14 February 1977. There is NO parental-status condition: it does not matter whether either parent was a citizen, permanent resident, temporary resident, or without status. There is no residence, language, knowledge, age, financial, or character requirement, because citizenship is acquired at birth rather than granted. The only way a Canadian-soil birth does NOT confer citizenship is if the s.3(2) diplomat exception is engaged (see Exclusions). Because the right vests automatically, the practical 'eligibility' question for an adult is almost always evidentiary — proving the fact of birth in Canada to obtain a citizenship certificate (proof of citizenship) — rather than a question of qualifying. A Canadian provincial/territorial birth certificate is itself accepted as proof of citizenship for a person born in Canada, subject to the diplomat-child exception.

Because citizenship vests at birth, no documents are needed to BE a citizen. Documents arise only when proof is sought. A Canadian provincial or territorial long-form birth certificate (showing the place of birth as a location in Canada) is accepted by IRCC as evidence of citizenship for a person born in Canada, subject to the diplomat-child exception. Where formal proof is required (for a Canadian passport application, employment, or travel), the person applies for a citizenship certificate (proof of citizenship) under s.12, submitting: the application form, the Canadian birth certificate, photo identification, and photographs per IRCC specifications. For a deemed-Canada birth under s.2(2)(a), evidence of the vessel's or aircraft's Canadian registration plus the birth record would support the claim. Children of diplomats asserting they fall OUTSIDE s.3(2) (e.g., one parent was a PR) would provide evidence of that parent's status at the time of birth.

There is NO process to acquire citizenship by jus soli — it is automatic at birth. The only procedural pathway is OPTIONAL and evidentiary: obtaining a citizenship certificate (proof of citizenship). Steps: (1) determine whether proof is needed (a provincial/territorial birth certificate already suffices for many purposes, including a first Canadian passport for a Canadian-born person); (2) complete IRCC's 'Apply for a Canadian citizenship certificate' application; (3) assemble the Canadian birth certificate, identity documents, and photographs; (4) pay the $75 certificate fee; (5) submit online or on paper to IRCC; (6) receive the citizenship certificate (paper or e-certificate). No oath, test, language assessment, or interview is involved for a person who is already a citizen by birth. A passport can be applied for separately using the birth certificate or the citizenship certificate as proof of citizenship.

Jus soli citizenship itself is instantaneous — it exists from the moment of birth, with zero processing time, zero adjudication, and no intervening administrative step. Processing time is relevant ONLY to the OPTIONAL citizenship certificate (proof of citizenship), which IRCC tracks on a separate processing-times measure distinct from the adult s.5(1) grant; the certificate and grant streams are reported independently and should never be conflated. A person who never seeks the certificate is no less a citizen. As of 2026-06-01 the live IRCC processing-time widget returned a load error at fetch, so the exact current proof-of-citizenship month-count was not pinned this date; the route should re-read the IRCC 'Check processing times' tool same-day at QA before hard-citing any number (the same widget error was encountered across the apply, urgent, and stateless pages). By contrast, the adult naturalization grant (CA-NAT-01, a wholly different route) posted about 13 months against a published 12-month service standard in the IRCC 2026-27 Departmental Plan — that figure must NOT be transposed onto a certificate request. The practical takeaway for CA-BTH-01 is that the certificate is a convenience document confirming a status the person already holds; the underlying citizenship is unaffected by any processing delay, and urgent processing may be requested where IRCC's criteria are met.

NO hay que pagar ninguna tarifa para adquirir la ciudadanía por nacimiento: el jus soli no cuesta nada porque es automático. Las tarifas se aplican solo a los documentos OPCIONALES (montos en CAD, vigentes al 1 de junio de 2026): un certificado de ciudadanía (prueba de ciudadanía) cuesta $75,00; una búsqueda de registros de ciudadanía cuesta $75.00. Se trata de tasas por servicios documentales, no de un precio de ciudadanía. Por el contrario (estos NO se aplican a un ciudadano de jus soli): el total de la subvención de naturalización para adultos es de $653,00 ($530 de procesamiento + $123 de tarifa por derecho de ciudadanía, habiendo aumentado el RCF a $123 a partir del 31 de marzo de 2026), y una subvención para menores es de $100,00, pero una persona nacida en Canadá nunca los paga porque no se naturalizó. Un pasaporte canadiense conlleva su propia tarifa de Pasaporte Canadá, independiente de cualquier tarifa de ciudadanía. Las tarifas se indexan anualmente según la Ley de Tarifas de Servicio, por lo que la tarifa del certificado de $75 puede ajustarse en años futuros.

La disposición operativa es la Ley de Ciudadanía, artículo 3(1)(a): 'Sujeto a esta Ley, una persona es ciudadana si (a) nació en Canadá después del 14 de febrero de 1977.' El límite del 14 de febrero de 1977 marca la entrada en vigor del estatuto moderno (S.C. 1974-75-76, c. 108, en vigor el 15 de febrero de 1977), posteriormente revisado en R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29. Los nacimientos antes de esa fecha se rigen por la cadena histórica (artículo 3(1)(d) en adelante; ver CA-HIS-01), pero el jus soli en suelo canadiense ha sido una característica constante desde mucho antes de 1977. Dos disposiciones adyacentes completan el marco: el artículo 2(2)(a) considera un nacimiento en un buque registrado en Canadá (Ley de Transporte Marítimo de Canadá, 2001, artículo 2) o en una aeronave (Ley de Aeronáutica) como un nacimiento en Canadá; y el artículo 3(2) establece la única excepción para los hijos de diplomáticos. La ciudadanía es un área de jurisdicción federal exclusiva según el artículo 91 (25) de la Ley constitucional de 1867 ("Naturalización y extranjería"); ninguna provincia, incluida Quebec, tiene poder alguno para otorgar ciudadanía, por lo que el jus soli se aplica de manera uniforme en todas las provincias y territorios.

No discretionary decision-maker grants jus soli citizenship — it arises by operation of law under s.3(1)(a), not by any Ministerial or officer decision, so there is no 'authority' that confers the status itself. Citizenship is administered federally by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) under the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (Citizenship Act s.1, s.2(1)), citizenship being an exclusive federal head of power under s.91(25) of the Constitution Act, 1867 ('Naturalization and Aliens'), so the rule applies uniformly across all provinces and territories with no provincial role. Where a determination is needed — typically to ISSUE a citizenship certificate, or to resolve whether the narrow s.3(2) diplomat exception is engaged — an IRCC citizenship officer assesses the documentary record. The 'Court' for any judicial review is the Federal Court (Citizenship Act s.2(1) definition). An officer's determination that a person is or is not a citizen, or that s.3(2) applies, is reviewable in the Federal Court on the presumptive reasonableness standard set by Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65, [2019] 4 SCR 653, with correctness reserved for limited categories such as constitutional questions. Because s.3(1)(a) is a bright-line factual rule, officer discretion is minimal; contested questions are evidentiary (was the birth in Canada?) or definitional (did the diplomat exception apply?), not discretionary.

There is no statutory administrative appeal of a citizenship-by-birth determination to any tribunal, but judicial review lies to the Federal Court under the Citizenship Act (s.2(1) defines 'Court' as the Federal Court) and the Federal Courts Act. An applicant refused a citizenship certificate on the basis that s.3(2) is engaged, or that the birth was not in Canada, may seek leave for judicial review; the reviewing court applies the presumptive reasonableness standard from Canada (MCI) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65, [2019] 4 SCR 653, asking whether the officer's decision is justified, transparent and intelligible on the record, with correctness reserved for limited categories such as constitutional questions and general questions of law of central importance. The leading illustration of contested status at the jus-soli/diplomat boundary is Budlakoti v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2015 FCA 139, where the s.3(2) diplomat-staff exception and the resulting statelessness risk were litigated. Because a Canadian provincial/territorial birth certificate is itself accepted by IRCC as proof of citizenship for a person born in Canada, most place-of-birth questions never reach review at all. Outside the diplomat carve-out, jus soli is rarely contestable because it turns on the simple, documentable fact of place of birth after 14 February 1977 — there is no residence, language, or character element that could be impugned.

Edge cases at the jus soli boundary: (1) Deemed-Canada births (s.2(2)(a)) — a child born on a Canadian-registered vessel in international waters or on a Canadian-registered aircraft is a citizen even though physically born outside Canadian territory. (2) Foundlings/deserted children — s.4 of the Citizenship Act deems a deserted child found in Canada to have been born in Canada (absent evidence to the contrary), bringing abandoned newborns within jus soli protection. (3) Children born after a parent's death or before the parent's PR was finalized — irrelevant to jus soli, which depends only on place of birth. (4) The s.3(2) diplomat boundary — where one parent held PR or citizenship at the time of birth, the diplomat exception fails and the child IS a citizen; where the diplomat parent had ceased diplomatic functions, the exception also fails. (5) Statelessness from the diplomat exception — a diplomat's child excluded by s.3(2) who acquires no other nationality may be stateless, a risk litigated in Budlakoti v. Canada, 2015 FCA 139, and potentially addressed through the discretionary s.5(4) statelessness grant.