Citizenship by descent — first generation (born abroad to a Canadian)

CA-DSC-01 is Canadian citizenship by descent (jus sanguinis) for the FIRST generation born abroad: a person born outside Canada after 14 February 1977 is a Canadian citizen if, at the time of their birth, at least one parent (other than an adoptive parent) was a Canadian citizen. The grant operates automatically by operation of law under Citizenship Act s.3(1)(b); the person is deemed by s.3(7)(h) to have been a citizen from birth. No application, residence, language, knowledge test, oath, or fee is required to BE a citizen by descent in the first generation; an application is needed only to obtain documentary PROOF (a citizenship certificate). This route covers the stable, unchanged core of jus sanguinis. Critically, the first-generation limit (FGL) / substantial-connection test in s.3(3) does NOT bite on the first generation born abroad: a child whose Canadian parent acquired citizenship by birth in Canada (s.3(1)(a)), by grant/naturalisation in Canada (s.5), or by adoption-grant is unconditionally a citizen by descent. The 1,095-day substantial-connection test only gates the SECOND-and-later generation born abroad (handled separately in CA-DSC-02), and the Crown-service exception in CA-DSC-03. As of 2026-06-01 the core s.3(1)(b) descent text was UNCHANGED by Bill C-3 (S.C. 2025 c.5).

There is NO fee to acquire first-generation citizenship by descent itself, because it arises automatically by operation of law (s.3(1)(b) read with s.3(7)(h)) — no grant application and no Right of Citizenship Fee apply. The only fee that may arise is for the documentary PROOF: the IRCC citizenship certificate (proof of citizenship) fee is CAD 75.00 as of 2026-06-01 (per the IRCC fee list, date-modified 2026-04-30). A search of citizenship records, sometimes needed to locate a historical record before a certificate can issue, is a separate CAD 75.00. For contrast, the adult naturalisation GRANT total is CAD 653.00 (CAD 530 processing + CAD 123 Right of Citizenship Fee, the RCF having risen to CAD 123 effective 2026-03-31) and a minor grant is CAD 100.00 — but none of these grant fees apply to a person who is already a citizen by first-generation descent. Fees are indexed annually under the Service Fees Act, so the certificate fee should be re-checked against the IRCC fee list before reliance.

The controlling statute is the Citizenship Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29, administered federally by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). The operative grant is s.3(1)(b): 'a person is a citizen if... the person was born outside Canada after February 14, 1977 and at the time of his birth one of his parents, other than a parent who adopted him, was a citizen.' Section 3(7)(h) deems a person described in s.3(1)(b) to be a citizen from the time of birth, making descent retroactive and automatic rather than a discretionary grant. The modern descent regime dates from the Citizenship Act, S.C. 1974-75-76, c. 108, in force 15 February 1977 (era window W3), later revised into R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29. The first-generation limit was layered on by Bill C-37 (S.C. 2008 c.14, in force 17 April 2009) as a carve-out via s.3(3), and the FGL reform (Bjorkquist 2023 ONSC 7152 then Bill C-3 / S.C. 2025 c.5, in force 15 December 2025) further amended s.3(3) — but none of these disturbed the core s.3(1)(b) first-generation descent grant, which remains stable as of 2026-06-01.