C-3 retroactive descent restoration — second-generation-plus born before 2025-12-15

CA-HIS-04 is the retroactive descent-restoration route created by Bill C-3 (An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), S.C. 2025, c. 5), in force 2025-12-15 per Order in Council SI/2025-129 (P.C. 2025-928). It confers Canadian citizenship, by operation of law, on persons born outside Canada BEFORE 2025-12-15 who were excluded by the old absolute first-generation limit (FGL) — i.e., the second-and-later-generation born-abroad descendants of a Canadian. Before C-3, the FGL added by Bill C-37 (S.C. 2008, c. 14, in force 2009-04-17) barred descent for anyone born abroad to a Canadian parent who was themselves a citizen by descent, with no escape mechanism. The Ontario Superior Court in Bjorkquist v. AG Canada, 2023 ONSC 7152, declared that bar unconstitutional (Charter s.6 + s.15); C-3 is Parliament's remedial replacement. The pre-CIF cohort is now restored automatically and applies only for PROOF of citizenship (a citizenship certificate). This route is distinct from CA-HIS-03 (former s.8 Lost Canadians) and from CA-DSC-02 (the prospective 1,095-day substantial-connection test for births on/after 2025-12-15). As of 2026-06-01 this is in-force law, not pending.

The operational fee for CA-HIS-04 is the proof-of-Canadian-citizenship (citizenship certificate) fee of CAD 75.00, per the IRCC fee list (date-modified 2026-04-30). A search of citizenship records, sometimes needed to document an older linking ancestor's status, is a further CAD 75.00. There is NO grant fee and NO Right of Citizenship Fee (RCF) for this route, because the person is already a citizen by operation of law and is merely obtaining proof — the RCF (CAD 123, increased from CAD 119.75 effective 2026-03-31) and the CAD 530 processing fee attach to s.5 grants, not to descent recognition. Persons who become citizens automatically under C-3 but do NOT want citizenship may use the C-3 simplified renunciation path, which carries no fee (CAD 0) per SOR/2025-278, instead of the standard s.9 renunciation (CAD 100). All fees are set administratively and indexed; verify the current IRCC fee list at application time.

The controlling instrument is An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), S.C. 2025, c. 5 (Bill C-3, 45th Parliament, 1st session), assented to 2025-11-20 and in force 2025-12-15 by OIC SI/2025-129 (P.C. 2025-928, made under s.7 of the Act). The retroactive effect is operationalized through the consolidated Citizenship Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29, s.3: the C-3 enactment ensures citizenship by descent for all persons born outside Canada before coming-into-force to a parent who was a citizen, and s.3(1.5) ('citizen despite death of parent or grandparent') cures cases where the linking ancestor died before C-3 came into force. Section 3(6.5) (added by S.C. 2025, c. 5) forms part of the retroactive-cohort timing/deeming machinery within the consolidated s.3; this C-3-inserted provision is evidence-supported (its in-force status resolved via the consolidation-lag analysis — CA-A-051), the apparent 'Amendments not in force' panel being a known consolidation lag resolved toward the IRCC coming-into-effect backgrounder and Gazette OIC SI/2025-129. The old FGL provision (former s.3(3)(a), enacted by S.C. 2008, c. 14) was replaced by S.C. 2025, c. 5, s.1(8) so that s.3(3) now bites only prospectively. Core descent text s.3(1)(b) and the s.3(7)(h) deeming-from-birth rule are unchanged.