Citizenship by descent — Crown-service-abroad exception

CA-DSC-03 is the Crown-service-abroad exception to Canada's first-generation limit (FGL) on citizenship by descent. The baseline descent grant (s.3(1)(b)) confers citizenship on a person born outside Canada after 1977-02-14 to a Canadian parent; s.3(7)(h) deems that person a citizen from birth. Since Bill C-3 (S.C. 2025, c. 5) came into force 2025-12-15, the substantial-connection limit at s.3(3) bars descent for a child born abroad on/after that date to a born-abroad/by-descent Canadian parent UNLESS a citizen parent accumulated at least 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada before the birth. Section 3(5) is a carve-out: where the linking parent (or grandparent, or the parent's adoptive parent) was employed abroad with the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal public administration, or a provincial public service (otherwise than as a locally engaged person), s.3(3) does not apply at all, so descent passes WITHOUT the 1,095-day test. This route serves Canadian families posted abroad in Crown service whose children are second-generation-plus born abroad.

CA-DSC-03 confers citizenship by descent, so there is no naturalisation grant fee. The operational cost is the proof-of-citizenship (citizenship certificate) fee, which is CAD 75.00 as of 2026-06-01 per the IRCC fee list (date-modified 2026-04-30). For contrast and to prevent mis-pinning: the adult naturalisation grant total is CAD 653 (CAD 530 processing + CAD 123 Right of Citizenship Fee, RCF up to CAD 123 effective 2026-03-31); the minor grant is CAD 100; a search of citizenship records is CAD 75. None of these grant/RCF figures apply to a descent claim — the RCF attaches to s.5 grants, not to citizenship acquired by operation of law under s.3. The only fee a CA-DSC-03 applicant pays is the certificate fee to evidence status. Fees are indexed annually under the Service Fees Act; verify the current certificate fee on the IRCC fee list before reliance.

The operative provision is Citizenship Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29, s.3(5), marginal note 'Exception — child or grandchild of person in service abroad', in its current form as enacted by S.C. 2025, c. 5, s.1 (Bill C-3): that section repealed the old Crown-service apparatus at former s.3(5.1)/(5.2) and re-cast the Crown-service exception as the current s.3(5). The s.3(5) wording does NOT derive from s.1(8); s.1(8) is the sub-provision that replaced s.3(3) (the substantial-connection / first-generation limit that s.3(5) disapplies). Verbatim s.3(5): 'Subsection (3) does not apply to a person (a) born to a parent who, at the time of the person's birth, was employed outside Canada in or with the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal public administration or the public service of a province, otherwise than as a locally engaged person; (b) born to a parent one or both of whose parents, at the time of that parent's birth, were [so] employed...; or (c) born to a parent one or both of whose adoptive parents, at the time of that parent's adoption, were [so] employed...'. The exception attaches to the underlying descent grant in s.3(1)(b), read with the deeming rule s.3(7)(h) (citizen from birth) and the genetic-link interpretation of Kandola v. Canada, 2014 FCA 85. Coming-into-force of s.3(3)/(5) in their current form is fixed at 2025-12-15 by Order in Council SI/2025-129 (P.C. 2025-928).