New citizenship law

An amendment to the existing Citizenship Act comes into force April 17, 2009. Changes will impact citizenship status on different groups, including children. Here’s the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) official explanation on the first generation limitation (CIC reports that it will update the page for more information, as questions are raised): 

Under the current rules, it’s possible for Canadians to pass on their citizenship to endless generations born outside Canada. To protect the value of Canadian citizenship for the future, the new law will – with a few exceptions – limit citizenship by descent to one generation born outside Canada.
This means that children born to Canadian parents in the first generation outside Canada will only be Canadian at birth if:
– one parent was born in Canada, or
– one parent became a Canadian citizen by immigrating to Canada and was later granted citizenship (also called naturalization).
The rules may also affect children adopted by Canadian parents outside Canada, depending on the way in which the child obtained, or will obtain, their Canadian citizenship. Learn more about the new citizenship law and adoption.