r/CitizenshipByDescent

Hey all, just wondering if anyone here who’s done citizenship transfer though a grandparent could tell me about their experience? Specifically what documents did you use to prove US presence for the grandparent. I’m hearing different cases of people using Tax records, but some other saying that those are not the preferred method. Just wondering if anyone could share their experience.
Thanks :)

I'm filling out my CIT 0001 of course!

I've put almost everything together, my certified copy of my birth certificate, my father's certified copy of his birth certificate - which happens to mention that his father's (my grandfather) birthplace: CANADA. Right now I'm waiting patiently on a wonderful women from a Catholic to do some research on trying to find any documentation for my grandfather. She works for the cemetery where my great-grandfather is buried, and the parish, St. Columban church - which burned down 20+ years ago.

My attempts to utilize the "Archives of Ontario" were stymied because of the inundation of requests from us Americans. They have a notice out since April of 2026 that seems to state that help for any documentation has been suspended due to lack of manpower.

Back to the CIT fill out - I found a wonderful series of YouTube videos "Your Canadian Ancestry" called "CIT 0001 Application Walkthrough" which comes in parts to easily complete the document. I initially tried on my own - but use this to offer confidence for yourself that you are checking all the boxes and answering correctly. This woman provides some great insight and well as updates.

I've got to be honest, finding my grandfathers birth/baptismal records right now appears to be my roadblock. As mentioned earlier, right now I'm relying solely on this gracious woman to do her research. Her last update was that since this church burned down, the records would be with the Seaforth St. James Catholic Church. She wanted to wait until Monday after all the Canada Day holiday festivities have completed.

If anyone has any thoughts or could point me in any particular direction - that would be appreciated. I've heard about the possibility of obtaining a letter along the lines of "all efforts to find documentation have been exhausted" - and that said letter from whatever governing body - would complete my checklist for documentation.

I'm really in no hurry with this quest, and considering my age - I'm not really sure how much dual citizenship with Canada will be of benefit. I'm really working on this for my kids, in the event they could utilize this situation any better. Saying that, I'm assuming I need to take care of me receiving this dual citizenship before I consider adding in my daughter? Would it be smart to "kill two birds with one stone" here?

Thanks for any intel in advance!!

Warm greetings from New Zealand! My brother and I are assembling documents to apply for Canadian PoC.

• Our grandfather was born in Quebec in 1944. He emigrated to New Zealand in the early 60s - our mother was born in NZ in 1972 (to him and our New Zealander grandmother).
• Our mother obtained her Certificate of Canadian Citizenship in 1996.

We have proof that both our mother and grandfather are Canadian citizens (certificate and passport respectively). We also have both our birth certificates. However, we do not have our mother's birth certificate (i.e. explicitly proving the parental relationship).

Is this a deal breaker for our application?

Many thanks and a revoir!

Hello, I am an American who’s great-grandmother and father were both Canadian citizens that immigrated to America from Quebec to New Hampshire in the early 1900s, I have found immigration papers online as well as birth certificates. I am just wondering would this be enough? And also would this be enough for it ti be worth it to talk to a consulate about immigrating to Canada.

EDIT: LOL, sorry about this, well after posting this I spent another 5 minutes looking and found this which probably answers all my questions in the section titled “Quebec: My Canadian ancestor was born in Quebec. How do I get a birth certificate/record?”. But I’m glad to take any other recommendations and I’ll leave this up and post this link here in case it helps anyone else:

Finding and Obtaining Ancestral Records : https://www.reddit.com/r/Canadiancitizenship/wiki/index/table-of-contents/genealogy-research--finding-records/

ORIGINAL POST:

I am a U.S. citizen and want to apply for Canadian citizenship by descent based on my great-grandmother who was born in Gaspe, Quebec in 1886 in an English-speaking family I highly suspect would have been Protestants (possibly important as I have heard church documents can come into play in old Quebec), grew up there, and as an adult married an American and moved to upstate NY.

A little over a month ago when I first even learned this might be possible due to recent changes in Canadian law, I recall somewhere seeing a rundown on ways to get birth documentation from that far back for people from Quebec, which I gathered sometimes was tricky. I’m not immediately finding this again and I was wondering if anyone could advise me or point me to a good primer on this?

Given the recent events surrounding the certifications rescinded and reevaluated, is the conventional wisdom moving forward to only include certified primary documents and not supplemental documents adding proof, or given that the review has taken place and was seemingly isolated to a small population lacking certified primary documents is the consensus still to include other supplemental information.

I already submitted my application with the primary certified documents and supplemental documents, however, I am now helping some family members and I am wondering what people’s thoughts are on including additional info that corroborates G0’s birth in CA.

Hi friends, do you know if I need an official letter from New Brunswick saying my ancestor didn’t have a birth certificate? It was 1850 and they weren’t really doing those then.

Update #2: I paid for my passport & now they need someone to confirm my identity. I reached out to a close friend and haven’t heard back from her, all day. If she refuses, then I won’t have anyone else. What should I do, in case she refuses?
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Update: 1. Yes, my father was born in 1955; 2. My parents were married when I was born in 1996. They were married from January 1994 until October 2010. 3. I have my dad’s Bermuda birth certificate (plus, 2 additional copies).

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Original Post:

I’m 29 years old & an American citizen (I was born & raised in the US). My mother is American & my dad, who died in 2010, was from Bermuda.

However, in January 2026, I learned my paternal great-great grandfather was from Somerset, England (and my family doesn’t know—I’m the first one in the family to discover this). My great-great grandfather was a Royal Navy officer, born in 1873; he died in 1938.

I’ve tried to apply for Bermudian citizenship first (under a BOTC & Article 18 of Bermuda’s constitution), but the immigration attorney I spoke to said he charges $625 an hour, and a flat rate of $900 for a one-time consultation. That was a few years ago, and haven’t thought about my citizenship until now.

So—I then thought about British citizenship in the UK, instead. Should I apply for a BOTC for Bermuda first, and then the UK afterward? (If I do that, I’l need a 30 times cheaper Bermudian attorney) Or should I just directly apply for UK citizenship without going the Bermuda route? Either way, I’d like to aim for either triple status or dual citizenship.

Hi everyone, we’re looking for real-world outcomes on a specific Bill C-3 / amended Citizenship Act lineage.

We are specifically trying to understand how IRCC is treating chains that pass through what this community has called the “pre-1947 G2 gap.”

Family chain

1. 1859 – Ancestor born in Quebec
2. 1903 – Child born in the U.S. to that Canadian-born ancestor
3. 1937 – Grandchild born in the U.S. to the 1903-born child
4. 1960s – Applicant born in the U.S. to the 1937-born parent

We have official U.S. long-form birth/marriage records linking every generation, plus Quebec baptismal evidence for the Canadian-born ancestor.

What we’re trying to confirm

• Does IRCC treat the 1903 U.S.-born child as Canadian from birth because of the Canadian-born parent, or only from 1 Jan 1947?
• Has anyone seen a 1960s-born applicant approved when both their parent and grandparent were U.S.-born before 1947?
• Has anyone with a similar pre-1947 G2 structure received a CIT 0001 citizenship certificate after Bill C-3 came into force?

We saw the helpful comment from u/XmasTwinFallsIdaho describing an approval where the grandmother was U.S.-born around 1910 to a Canada-born father, and the mother was U.S.-born just before 1947. That seems very close to this fact pattern, so we are wondering whether others have seen similar approvals, refusals, document requests, or suspensions.

We’ve also read the CounterI / tvtoo discussions about the strict textual issue around s. 3(1)(q), s. 3(1)(k), and s. 3(1)(o). We are not looking to restart that legal debate so much as collect real-world outcomes.

We note IRCC's answer to House of Commons Written Question 1009 (tabled May 25, 2026) stating that C-3 applicants 'would already have been considered citizens by descent if not for the first-generation limit or certain outdated provisions of earlier citizenship laws' — we read this as supporting the chain through a pre-1947 G2, and welcome any community experience confirming or complicating that reading.

Mostly interested in post–December 15, 2025 CIT 0001 proof/certificate outcomes, not 5(4) grants. Not asking for legal advice, just comparable experiences.

Thanks!

Title: [Citizenship] -> Netherlands: How do we handle unattainable evidence for nationality retention (spouse's nationality proof) and my own first passport application (proof of mother's nationality at birth)?
Body:
Hoping for guidance on two connected situations — my mother’s Dutch passport renewal/nationality retention, and my own first Dutch passport application as her child.
My mother (F)
Dutch-Australian dual national. Renewed her Dutch passport 3 times while living in Australia (most recent covering 2013–2018). Naturalised as Australian in 2015 while married to my father (M), who is himself a naturalised Australian citizen (not born there). They are now separated but not divorced; he currently lives overseas. She has a passport renewal deadline in late September 2026, VFS appointment already booked.
To confirm she qualifies for the “married to a national at time of naturalisation” exception (avoiding automatic loss of Dutch nationality under the voluntary naturalisation rule), she’s been asked to bring originals of:
Her naturalisation certificate (replacement in progress)

Marriage certificate (replacement in progress)

Her husband’s proof of Australian nationality, dated on/before 2015

Documents for #3 are not attainable — no copy currently held, and he is not easily reachable to provide originals or certified copies.
We are also obtaining a Proof of Non-Divorce from the Federal Circuit and Family Court to confirm the marriage was valid at the time of her naturalisation.
Myself (born Australia, 2003)
Applying for my first Dutch passport as the child of my Dutch mother. Per the standard checklist, I need to prove she held Dutch nationality at my birth (2003) and until I turned 18. The only document currently available is her passport covering 2013–2018 — nothing from 2003 or earlier is attainable.
Questions
Has anyone dealt with the spouse’s-nationality-proof requirement when the spouse’s documents are genuinely unattainable? Does a statutory declaration or other alternative ever get accepted?

Is a 2013–2018 passport enough to imply continuity of nationality back to a 2003 birth, or does the consulate need something closer to the birth year?

What actually happens if an application is filed with a document gap — refusal, deficiency notice, or provisional acceptance?

Any experience with similar gaps would help. Trying to get ahead of the September deadline.

I’m a journalist researching about Lost Canadians. I am looking for people who received proof of Canadian citizenship after Bill C-3 came into force, but were later contacted by IRCC and asked to surrender their citizenship certificates while their files were reviewed, but from non Americans.

Much of the public discussion so far has involved Americans. I’m trying to establish whether similar notices were sent to applicants of other nationalities.

I would like to hear from you if:

• IRCC issued you a citizenship certificate under Bill C-3;
• you later received a subsection 26(1) surrender, suspension or review notice;
• your certificate was later reverified, cancelled or remains under review; or
• you received communication saying a Canadian passport was no longer valid.

Please comment below or send me a private message. An initial conversation can be off the record, and I will not publish your name or personal details without your clear consent.

For clarity, I am looking specifically at the review of citizenship certificates issued after Bill C-3—not general citizenship delays or files referred to IRCC’s Program Support Unit.

For context, I have written about Bill C3 issues: https://newcanadianmedia.ca/american-families-stuck-in-limbo-citizenship-applicants-caught-in-irccs-black-hole/

I’m applying for nine members in my family including myself. Some of the people don’t have passports so we are scrambling to find what they can use. Initially they gave me their drivers license and social security card. Then I read that Canada doesn’t accept those or cards like them. So we reverted to medical insurance cards, but I’m not sure if they will accept them either. My granddaughter is going to use her college student ID. I’m hoping that will work, but we’ve run into a brick wall with the others. I read the rules on ID’s and they mentioned that a birth certificate could be used as an ID. Please help me figure out what they can use for a second ID. Thank you!

I need help people.
I’m planning to apply for citizenship by descent, but my dad passed away over 20 years ago. I don’t have his naturalisation or citizenship certificate, so I requested his ATIP file. Do I still need to apply for a citizenship search even though I’ve already done the ATIP request?

I am looking for a lawyer to help me and my 2 adult kids get Lithuanian citizenship. I do not want to pay 3x (InIure charges per person) for what is really just a single ancestry search. I had a guy but he takes weeks to respond and then only after being prodded. So, can anyone recommend an attorney and share contact details? Thank you!

Probably a stupid question, but here goes.

I know applicants are still getting AORs, but are applications moving from AOR to In Process? Or is this where things are frozen while IRCC sorts things out?

Looking for a recommendation for a professional translation service for my German birth certificate. I'm applying for Irish citizenship by decent. TIA!

Hi everyone! I’m hoping someone can help me figure out which citizenship(s) I may be eligible to claim by descent.
I’ve been researching this for a few years now, but I always seem to hit a dead end—especially when it comes to finding out whether I’m eligible for German citizenship. I feel like that might be the easiest route since it’s almost a direct line, but I can’t seem to figure out if I actually qualify.
On my dad’s side, my great-grandparents were Italian and Irish. My great-grandfather was Italian, and my great-grandmother was Irish.
On my mom’s side, my great-grandfather was German, and my great-grandmother was Norwegian. Their son (my grandfather) was born in Norway but held German citizenship. I know my great-grandparents were German citizens at one point, but I’m not sure if they still held German citizenship when they passed away or if anything changed over the years.
I’m trying to figure out if I might qualify for Italian, Irish, German, or Norwegian citizenship by descent. I’m also wondering how I can find out exactly what citizenships my ancestors held over the years, what documents I should start looking for, and which government offices or archives I would need to contact.
This is actually the first Reddit community I’ve found that’s focused on citizenship, so if there are other Reddit communities, forums, Facebook groups, or better places to ask these kinds of questions, I’d really appreciate those recommendations as well.

I’ve been digging through Ancestry recently and have found a lot more information than I originally had. The more I uncover, the more I think German citizenship might be my best chance, but I’m still trying to figure out if I’m actually eligible. Here’s what I’ve found so far: My grandfather was born in Norway in 1946. His father (my great-grandfather) was born in Germany in 1924, and his mother (my great-grandmother) was born in Norway in 1923, though they were living in Germany at some point and later departed together from Germany to New York in 1954. At some point, the family moved from Norway to Germany, although I’m not sure exactly when that happened. I found my family’s immigration passenger records from 1954 when they arrived in New York. All of them are listed as German citizens on the records, even though my grandfather was born in Norway. I also found what looks like either a train pass or some type of identification/travel document showing travel between Germany and Norway before they immigrated. I’m not entirely sure what the document is, but it appears they traveled back and forth, possibly just to visit family. In addition, I found later records like my grandparents’ marriage certificate (from 1989), as well as my grandfather’s death record from 2024. Since my grandfather was a German citizen and my mother was born in New York in 1971, I’m wondering if German citizenship by descent is the most realistic path for me, especially since my Italian and Irish ancestry is through my great-grandparents rather than my grandparents.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I also should mention I’ve basically never used Reddit before just briefly had an account and I’m still figuring out how everything works. If anyone needs any more specific information or details from me, please let me know.

How can I get my dual citizenship (Canada and Philippines) if: I was born in Canada, live in Canada , both my parents were born in Philippines and became Canadian citizens, my mother got her dual citizenship but I was already 19 by then so I could not automatically get my dual citizenship. I want to play sports in a Philippine college.

Hey everyone,

I'm hoping someone might be able to shine some light on what is going on.

I applied for CBD back in January of this year and sent my application to the High Commissioner in London as I live in the UK. The IRCC apparently received my application on March 18th, but since then nothing.

I can track my application using my receipt number, but all it says is Application Received.

With the suspension of certain certificates issued and the current pause on processing new applications am I to assume that an AOR will be issued soon.

Thanks

Gav