What is "Lost Canadian"?

"Lost Canadians" is the term for people who lost or were never granted Canadian citizenship under former citizenship rules. Historical patterns include:

• Children born abroad to Canadian parents before 1947 (pre-Canadian Citizenship Act)
• Children of Canadian women who married non-Canadians (under prior gender-discriminatory provisions)
• Canadians who took foreign citizenship before the law removed the loss-of-citizenship-by-naturalization rule
• Born-abroad children of born-abroad Canadians (the "first-generation limit" introduced in 2009)

Successive amendments restoring citizenship

The Citizenship Act has been amended multiple times to restore citizenship to lost cohorts:

• 1977 Citizenship Act overhaul — modernized rules
• 2009 amendments (Bill C-37) — restored citizenship to many lost Canadians and applied a first-generation limit for children born abroad to Canadian parents
• 2015 amendments (Bill C-24) — further expanded eligibility
• 2023-2024 amendments — addressed the first-generation limit struck down by the Ontario Superior Court (Bjorkquist case)

The first-generation limit

Under current rules, citizenship by descent passes to:

• First-generation children born abroad to a Canadian-citizen parent
• NOT automatically to second-generation children born abroad to a born-abroad Canadian parent (the first-generation limit)

The Ontario Superior Court struck down this limit in 2023 (Bjorkquist v. Canada); the government tabled legislation to restore citizenship to affected second-generation born-abroad Canadians. Status of the legislation has been in flux.

Who might be a Lost Canadian

• Born abroad to a Canadian parent before 1947
• Born abroad to a Canadian woman who married a non-Canadian before 1947
• Adopted abroad by Canadian parents before 1947
• Children of Canadians who naturalized in another country before 1977

How to confirm Lost Canadian status

The most reliable path is filing a proof of citizenship application with IRCC. If you're eligible, IRCC will issue a citizenship certificate confirming the status was never properly lost. Filing fee CAD 75.

Halani's note

Lost Canadian cases are highly fact-specific. Birth records, marriage certificates, parental immigration records — all matter. We assess Lost Canadian eligibility case-by-case for clients with Canadian-parent / Canadian-grandparent ancestry.