Canadian citizenship glossary

Plain-language definitions of the Canadian citizenship and immigration terms used across our guides.

Core terms

• Citizenship by descent — citizenship acquired automatically at birth because a parent (or, under Bill C-3, an earlier ancestor) was Canadian.
• First-generation limit — the 1977-era rule, removed by Bill C-3, that stopped citizenship by descent passing beyond the first generation born outside Canada.
• Lost Canadians — people who lost or never received Canadian citizenship because of quirks in the 1947 and 1977 Citizenship Acts.
• Marriage rule — the pre-1947 provision under which Canadian women lost citizenship by marrying a non-Canadian; retroactively reversed by Bill C-3.
• Age-28 retention requirement — the 1977 Act rule requiring second-generation citizens born abroad to reaffirm citizenship before turning 28; removed retroactively.
• Proof of citizenship / citizenship certificate — the IRCC document confirming you are a Canadian citizen. It is issued, not granted, so it does not create citizenship.
• Naturalization — the process by which a permanent resident becomes a Canadian citizen.
• IRCC — Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the federal department that processes citizenship applications.
• Substantial connection — the test in Bill C-3 requiring a Canadian parent to have spent time physically in Canada before passing citizenship to a child born abroad beyond the first generation.

Canada Citizen Center is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.