Ottawa- Canada has moved closer toward modernising citizenship-by-descent law after a bill to amend the act received royal assent, in a move that is likely to affect thousands of Indian-origin families.

Bill C-3, an Act to amend the Citizenship Act (2025), has received royal assent. This represents an important milestone in making the Citizenship Act more inclusive while maintaining the value of Canadian citizenship, said a news release issued by the Canadian government on Friday.

“Once the new law comes into force, Canadian citizenship will be provided to people born before the bill comes into force who would have been citizens if not for the first-generation limit or other outdated rules of past legislation”, the news release said.

The first-generation limit to Canadian citizenship by descent was introduced in 2009. It means that a child born or adopted outside Canada is not a Canadian citizen by descent if their Canadian parent was also born or adopted outside Canada.

This limit caused problems for many Indian-origin Canadians whose children were born out of the country, people who know the matter say.

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