Overview

• The House immigration committee approved amendments requiring most adults to meet language, Canadian-history knowledge, and security-screening standards similar to immigrant applicants.
• The committee set the substantial-connection threshold at 1,095 days in Canada to pass on citizenship, with those days required to fall within a five-year period.
• Conservative MPs failed to remove provisions expanding citizenship by descent after proposing a narrower eligibility tied to a parent’s status at the time of birth.
• Bill C-3 has cleared second reading and returns to the House of Commons for further debate and votes.
• The legislation answers a 2023 court ruling against the first-generation limit and would allow more people born abroad with a Canadian parent to claim citizenship.