Canada suspends citizenship by descent certificates issued under Bill C-3

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has suspended a number of citizenship certificates issued under Bill C-3 — the legislation restoring citizenship to the ‘Lost Canadians’ — and asked recipients to return them while it reviews the files. According to CBC News, the notices were signed by Peggy Sun, Registrar of Canadian Citizenship, and sent out during June 2026.

Who is affected

Between 15 December 2025 and 31 March 2026, IRCC issued 4,075 citizenship certificates under the new descent provisions, of which almost half (1,955) went to people born in the United States. The number of suspension letters has not been published; some immigration lawyers estimate at least several hundred people are affected.

According to CBC News, many recipients had moved to Canada, taken jobs or sold homes on the strength of a citizenship status IRCC had formally recognised. This is not revocation of citizenship — a separate legal procedure under the Citizenship Act that applies only where citizenship was obtained by fraud. Recipients can file further documentary evidence, and IRCC will return the certificate if eligibility is confirmed.

Why some files were flagged

The letters requesting return cite two documentary shortcomings: records not originating from an official source authority, and, where original documents were unavailable, the absence of a written explanation of why and of the efforts made to find them. IRCC has flagged files that establish the chain of descent chiefly through informal genealogy platforms rather than certified copies from a civil registry.

The move may sit awkwardly with IRCC’s own published guidance, which leaves open the possibility of accepting ‘other evidence’ of a parent’s citizenship. A Federal Court authority, Somers-Edgar v Canada, holds that the onus is on IRCC to state its requirements clearly; if it wishes to limit proof of descent to particular civil registries, it must say so on the form.

Bill C-3 and the ‘Lost Canadians’ in context

Bill C-3received Royal Assent on 20 November 2025 and came into force on 15 December 2025, removing the first-generation limit on citizenship by descent. The ‘Lost Canadians’ are people who believed themselves to be citizens or eligible for citizenship but were never formally recognised because of narrow provisions in the citizenship legislation.

Previously, Bill C-37 (in force from April 2008) imposed the first-generation limit: citizenship by descent passed to only one generation born outside Canada. In 2023, the Ontario Superior Court ruled that limit unconstitutional, opening the way for Bill C-3. Under the legislation, applicants are not applying for citizenship but for a certificate of a status recognised from birth — automatic and retroactive.

Reaction and the legal questions

The New Democratic Party (NDP) has asked Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab to explain why the certificates were suspended so abruptly. The episode raises a central legal question: whether IRCC can withdraw a certificate on documentary grounds once an application has been approved, given thatCanadian citizenshipunder Bill C-3 is recognised as existing from birth.

Removing the first-generation limit opened the possibility of citizenship for millions of people worldwide with Canadian ancestry, particularly Americans of French-Canadian or Maritime descent.