IRCC Updates Citizenship by Descent Certificate Forms And Tightens Proof Of The 1,095-Day Presence Test

On this page, you will find:

• What IRCC updated on August 25, 2026
• Which children the physical presence requirement applies to
• Why 1,095 days is a harder test than it first appears
• What counts as proof of a parent’s days in Canada
• Why the affidavit route has narrowed
• How IRCC verifies a physical presence claim
• What applicants with files already in progress should do
• Where the requirement does not apply at all
• Frequently asked questions

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) updated its proof of citizenship application rules for children born after December 15, 2025 to a parent who qualifies for a confirmation of citizenship under the Citizenship Act 2025. The revised instruction guide now sets out in detail how a Canadian parent must prove 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada before their child’s birth.

The requirement under Bill C-3, which took effect on December 15, 2025 and removed the first-generation limit on citizenship by descent for people born before that date. What is new is the level of documentary detail IRCC requires to prove the 1,095-day of physical residence claim will be evidenced, verified and, where the evidence falls short, rejected.

This matters most to a group that often assumes the hard part is already behind them. A parent who has just established their own Canadian citizenship by descent may find that passing it to a child born after December 15, 2025 turns not on the family tree at all, but on whether three years of physical presence in Canada can be documented from records that in many cases were never kept.

What IRCC Updated On August 25, 2026

The application for a citizenship certificate package now carries an August 2026 revision date on several of its components.

• CIT 0001, the application form, is dated August 2026, and its download page was modified on August 25, 2026.
• CIT 0014, the document checklist, carries the same August 2026 date and the same modification date.
• The Guide 0001 instruction guide for paper applications was also modified on August 25, 2026, and it is the guide that carries the substantive new material.
• CIT 0555, the form on which the parent’s days in Canada are calculated, remains the version applicants have been using since the rules took effect.

The important change is therefore not a new form to fill in, but a much clearer statement of the evidentiary standard behind an existing one. Appendix F of the instruction guide now sets out what documents IRCC will accept, what quality they must be in, who may swear an affidavit, and what an applicant must do when the records simply do not exist.

Which Children The Physical Presence Requirement Applies To

The guide states the test plainly: “Applicants who are born outside of Canada on or after December 15, 2025, to a Canadian parent who was also born outside Canada must show that at least one of their Canadian citizen parents has 1,095 days of physical presence in Canada prior to the birth of the applicant.”

Two conditions have to be true together. The child must have been born outside Canada on or after December 15, 2025, and the Canadian parent must also have been born outside Canada.

The guide adds a second trigger. Form CIT 0555 must also be completed where the Canadian parent was granted citizenship as an adopted person under section 5.1 of the Citizenship Act before the applicant’s birth.

People born or adopted before December 15, 2025 are not affected. For that group, Bill C-3 removed the first-generation limit outright, and no physical presence test applies. Anyone unsure which side of the line their own case falls on can work through the conditions on our page on Canadian citizenship by descent eligibility.

Why 1,095 Days Is A Harder Test Than It First Appears

1,095 days is three years. The days do not have to be consecutive, and they do not have to be recent — they can be accumulated across a lifetime of visits, provided they all fall before the child’s birth.

That flexibility is what makes the requirement deceptive.

A Canadian parent who lived in Canada for a few years as a student or worker will usually clear the threshold on a single continuous period, and can prove it with a lease, a transcript and a tax slip. A parent whose connection to Canada has been a lifetime of family visits faces a very different exercise: assembling dozens of separate short trips, each with a date of entry and a date of exit, from documents created decades ago.

The worked example printed on CIT 0555 shows how the arithmetic runs. A trip entered on June 21, 1985 and left on June 28, 1985 — seven nights at Niagara Falls for a family visit — is counted as eight days. Both the arrival day and the departure day count in full.

At that rate, a summer trip of a fortnight contributes roughly 15 days. Reaching 1,095 days on visits alone would take more than seventy such trips, each of which has to be evidenced individually.

This is the point at which many families discover the real problem is not eligibility but record-keeping.

What Counts As Proof Of A Parent’s Days In Canada

Appendix F asks for “authentic, reliable and verifiable documents,” and specifies that a document must show entry and exit dates or an established period of continuous residence. The categories it describes include:

• Travel records — passports bearing Canadian entry and exit stamps, and other travel documents;
• Employment and education records — records from Canadian employers, T-4 slips, and school or university transcripts;
• Residential records — leases, mortgage or property ownership documents, home insurance;
• Financial and utility records — bills and statements showing a Canadian address;
• Canadian government records — federal, provincial, territorial or municipal; and
• Affidavits from organisations or individuals with direct knowledge of the parent’s time in Canada, where official records are unavailable.

Two practical requirements sit alongside the list. Documents must be submitted as “clear and easy-to-read colour copies,” and the guide warns that poor-quality photocopies may cause delays. The updated material also emphasises that all information provided is subject to verification by IRCC, and asks for contact details for the people and organisations whose knowledge is being relied on.

Where a record genuinely cannot be obtained, the guide does not treat that as fatal — but it does require the applicant to say so in writing and to show what was attempted. Correspondence with a registry, a refusal letter, or written confirmation that a record no longer exists all serve that purpose. An unexplained gap does not.

Why The Affidavit Route Has Narrowed

For families without paper, affidavits are the fallback. The updated guidance restricts them considerably.

An affidavit must be sworn before an authorised official: inside Canada, a notary public, commissioner of oaths or commissioner for taking affidavits; outside Canada, a notary public or the local equivalent. It must carry the affiant’s full name, mailing address, and an email address or telephone number — the contact details IRCC will use if it decides to verify the statement.

The significant restriction is who may not swear one. Family members are excluded, and the exclusion is drawn widely: parents, guardians, siblings, spouses, common-law and conjugal partners, grandparents, children, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and first cousins. A relative’s professional credentials make no difference; a lawyer aunt is still an aunt.

The people most likely to remember a parent’s childhood summers in Canada are, of course, precisely the relatives now excluded. Families relying on this route need to identify eligible non-relatives — long-standing family friends, neighbours, employers, congregations, unions, volunteer organisations — and confirm in advance that those people are willing both to provide their contact details and to attend before a commissioner. That is a slow process to start after an application has already been filed.

A separate rule applies to translations. Documents in a language other than English or French require translation, and the guide states that “translations must not be done by the applicants themselves nor by members of the applicant’s family,” using the same list of excluded relatives.

How IRCC Verifies A Physical Presence Claim

The updated package makes clear that a physical presence declaration is not taken at face value.

Processing officers may request additional documents at any point in processing. Applications are also selected at random for quality assurance review, which can include a verification interview and, where parentage is in question, DNA testing.

Applicants should also note how IRCC treats a file that is missing something. An incomplete application is generally returned rather than refused, and the applicant must correct and resubmit it. That is better than a refusal, but it costs months, and for a family whose circumstances are time-sensitive the delay is the injury.

What Applicants With Files Already In Progress Should Do

Anyone who has already applied and now realises their physical presence evidence is thin does not have to wait to be asked.

IRCC allows supporting documents to be submitted proactively through its web form, using the applicant’s Unique Client Identifier (UCI) and application number. Documents provided before an officer reaches the file are considerably more useful than documents provided in response to a request.

Applicants should also keep their address, email address and telephone number current using IRCC’s change-of-address tool. A request for documents that goes to a stale address still starts the clock on the deadline to respond.

Where The Requirement Does Not Apply At All

The physical presence test is narrower than the coverage sometimes suggests, and several routes sit outside it entirely.

• A child born in Canada is a Canadian citizen at birth. No physical presence test arises.
• A child born or adopted before December 15, 2025 is not subject to the requirement.
• The Crown servant exception applies where the Canadian parent was serving in the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal public administration, or the public service of a province or territory, other than in a locally engaged capacity. Time abroad in that service is treated differently.
• Permanent residence followed by a citizenship grant remains available where the descent route is closed, under section 5 of the Citizenship Act.
• Discretionary consideration exists under subsections 5(1), 5(2) and 5(5), and is relevant in particular where a child would otherwise be stateless.

Identifying which of these applies is a legal question about a specific family, not a matter of reading a checklist.

What This Means For Families Considering An Application

The August 25, 2026 update does not change who is eligible. It changes how much work eligibility takes to prove, and it removes the easiest shortcut.

Three consequences follow.

First, evidence-gathering is now the long pole in the project. For a parent whose Canadian time was accumulated in short visits, assembling and dating that record is a research exercise measured in months, and it should begin well before an application is contemplated — ideally before a child is born, while the relevant relatives and witnesses can still be reached.

Second, the affidavit restrictions mean the fallback has to be planned rather than improvised. A family that discovers the exclusion list only after a return of their application has lost a great deal of time.

Third, the consequences of getting the physical presence calculation wrong are not confined to a delay. A declaration that IRCC cannot verify, or that verification contradicts, is a serious problem in a citizenship file.

Families in this position — particularly those whose Canadian parents established their own citizenship by descent only recently — should get the evidentiary strategy assessed before anything is filed. The eligibility question and the provability question are different questions, and it is the second one that the August 2026 update has made decisive. Our guide on how to claim Canadian citizenship by descent under Bill C-3 sets out the process and how to obtain professional assistance with it.

Frequently Asked Questions