Countries who are motivated to increase their populations are adopting more permissive paths to granting full citizenship, and Canada is no exception. In fact, you might be a Canadian citizen and not even know it — not until now anyway. On December 15, 2025, the Government of Canada passed Bill C-3, An Act to amend the Citizenship Act (called the “Lost Canadian” law) to liberalise the previous first-generation limit to acquiring Canadian citizenship by descent.

Before Bill C-3, acquiring Canadian citizenship by descent was limited to only the first generation of Canadian descendants who were born outside of Canada. Now, anyone who can prove they are a descendant of a Canadian, regardless of where they were born and without generational restriction, might already be a Canadian citizen.

Therefore, rather than having to apply for Canadian citizenship, a multigenerational descendant of a Canadian merely needs to prove their existing citizenship and apply for a citizenship certificate to evidence their Canadian citizenship.

As is the case for millions of Americans, many residents of Bermuda who were not born in Canada might have a Canadian ancestor who now entitles them to claim their Canadian citizenship.

The Canadian Government reports that since the election of US president Donald Trump to his first term of office the number of American’s who are applying for Canadian citizenship has steeply surged.

The timing of Canada’s new and permissive Lost Canadian law during president Trump’s second term of office is likely not coincidental.

Americans now account for nearly half of all new Canadian citizen certificate applications, and the birth and marriage archives in Quebec and Ontario cannot keep up with the demand for access to, and issuance of, related ancestry records.

Tens of thousands of citizenship certificates have already been issued over the last year, and the current backlog of certificate applications is 121,000, pushing the waiting time for certificate issuance up to two years.

Canadian citizenship, as evidenced by the certificate, will allow persons to hold a Canadian passport, and to live and work in Canada without restriction. However, the right of such a citizen to vote will be tied to residency in Canada at some point in their life.

Unlike countries that impose income tax on their global income based of their nationals (like the United States), Canada only imposes income tax obligations on those who are resident in Canada. Therefore, citizen certificates (on their own) will not trigger any Canadian income tax liability where the citizen is not a resident of Canada.

Having passed the Lost Canadian law, all Canada needs to do now is increase its capacity to process the overwhelming number of citizenship certificate applications, fund and greatly expand its ancestry archival infrastructure, and ensure that it remains a relatively safe, economically robust and hospitable jurisdiction to welcome its new citizens.

Perhaps Bermuda should consider a “Lost Bermudian” law to grant Bermudian status based on ancestry and where voting by such “citizens” is permitted after a residency that demonstrates a reasonable attachment and commitment to Bermuda.

• Duncan Card is the chief exedcutive of The Advisory Group (www.advisory.com), which provides advice related to privacy, technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, outsourcing and resilience compliance