Bill C-3

An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025)

Sponsor

Status

Report stage (House), as of Oct. 9, 2025

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Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament has also written a full legislative summary of the bill.

This enactment amends the Citizenship Act to, among other things,
(a) ensure that citizenship by descent is conferred on all persons who were born outside Canada before the coming into force of this enactment to a parent who was a citizen;
(b) confer citizenship by descent on persons born outside Canada after the first generation, on or after the coming into force of this enactment, to a parent who is a citizen and who had a substantial connection to Canada before the person’s birth;
(c) allow citizenship to be granted under section 5.1 of that Act to all persons born outside Canada who were adopted before the coming into force of this enactment by a parent who was a citizen;
(d) allow citizenship to be granted under section 5.1 of that Act to persons born outside Canada who are adopted on or after the coming into force of this enactment by a parent who is a citizen and who had a substantial connection to Canada before the person’s adoption;
(e) restore citizenship to persons who lost their citizenship because they did not make an application to retain it under the former section 8 of that Act or because they made an application under that section that was not approved; and
(f) allow certain persons who become citizens as a result of the coming into force of this enactment to access a simplified process to renounce their citizenship.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-3s:

C-3 (2021) Law An Act to amend the Criminal Code and the Canada Labour Code

C-3 (2020) Law An Act to amend the Judges Act and the Criminal Code

C-3 (2020) An Act to amend the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act and the Canada Border Services Agency Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts

C-3 (2015) Law Appropriation Act No. 4, 2015-16

Votes

Sept. 22, 2025 Passed 2nd reading of Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025)

Citizenship and Immigration Committee, on Oct. 2, 2025

Lena Metlege Diab, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
Scott, Assistant Deputy Minister, Settlement and Citizens, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Schneidereit, Counsel, Legal Services, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Hoang, Director General, Citizenship Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Bonner, Senior Fellow, Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy, As an Individual
Chapman, M.S.C., Lost Canadians
Jacques, Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer
Perrault, Director, Economic Analysis, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer

Citizenship and Immigration Committee, on Oct. 7, 2025

Hoang, Director General, Citizenship Branch, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Laurencelle, Team Manager and Senior Counsel, Legal Services Unit, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Jay-Tosh, Acting Senior Director, Citizenship Legislative Policy, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Dewan, Senior Policy Analyst, Department of Citizenship and Immigration