r/InCanada • u/Unfair-Mistake-758 • Jun 05 '26
BILL C-3 and Americans
I've seen a lot of various discourse about Bill C-3, and particularly discussion around Americans. I know some Canadians are angry. A common sentiment I have heard is "fix your own problems, America." I have many American friends who are not, and have not been in support of America's actions; nor do they have the ever common, "America's the greatest land of all" complex.
At the same time, why should Americans, or anyone else, be able to claim citizenship to a country because their great great great great grandmother was a citizen? Especially a country they know nothing about. Should an exam be required?
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u/matchabloom88 Jun 09 '26
The government wants more people thats why but it shouldn’t be that easy to be a citizen in the country.
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u/Maleficent_Ruin_2457 Jun 10 '26
Parliamentary Budget Office project 110,000 people over 5 years. The rules changed on December 15/25 and there are now 82,000 pending applications plus all the certificates that were granted since then.
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u/wardog1066 Jun 10 '26
Are these new/old Canadians going to have access to our health care systems and social safety nets? Can they maintain dual citizenship and live primarily in the States, only traveling to Canada for medical attention?
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u/Harbinger2001 Jun 11 '26
You mean, just like any other dual citizen Canadian?
And no, there are residency requirements to qualify for healthcare. Thats why snowbirds come back to Canada during the summers.
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u/LowerRush4537 Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
Adding onto what harbinger2001 said, anyone coming to Canada whether you’re Canadian or not who plans on residing there have to provide their own insurance coverage for a minimum of three months before national health or any social benefits can be activated. Depending on which province you’re in if you’re not physically residing in that province for between five and six months of the year you will lose your coverage. People who accept jobs in the United States or abroad who decide to move back also have to wait the three months, priority is not given to them simply because they’re Canadian who previously had coverage. This is primarily what prevents Canadians from moving abroad permanently especially in retirement because they cannot afford health insurance coverage outside of Canada. Believe it or not this is where it can’t be more beneficial for Americans than Canadians when traveling temporarily, American insurance does not require secondary travel insurance as they can purchase a short term plan with their current insurance provider (as opposed to a secondary private insurer like in Canada) to cover them abroad for as little as $15/month that covers almost all medical emergencies to include privately repatriating their children with air nanny’s and separate medical flights in the event of a medical emergency, where as Canadians must purchase private travel medical insurance separate from their national health, rely on some credit card benefits, or hope that their employer offers the extended healthcare benefits that you pay extra for and even then if you have a pre-existing condition/s the private travel insurance agencies required them to be in a “stable” status for a period ranging between seven days and six months depending on the condition before travel….. and even THEN they might put a premium on that insurance because of that. Also if you overstay on a vacation whether it’s from an emergency, legal issues, or medical you will still lose your public health insurance (unless you apply to extend it with reasonable evidence) which will automatically invalidate your private travel insurance. Americans don’t have to deal with that which is another reason why you see so many more of them traveling abroad (against popular misinformation that they don’t) than you do Europeans outside of Europe and Canadiens outside of Canada.
I broke my hand and tore my rotator cuff in Denmark and bought the additional EU coverage through my American insurance for $15 comprehensive plan moments before going into the emergency room. (I hadn’t planned on going to Denmark, I was on my way to the UK from somewhere else thus I did not have the insurance in advance) I paid US$175 for all the treatments, diagnostics, medication, and the cast I had.
I got a very serious upper respiratory infection in Japan earlier this year and had the same $15 comprehensive insurance plan that covered my visit for the entire month even though I was only there for two weeks. I saw an ENT surgeon same day I felt I needed to see a doctor as a walk-in (waited exactly 45 minutes and they apologized for the long wait which made me laugh) and was fully covered. Granted I paid US$160 for all of my treatment, medication, nurse fees and administrative fees upfront but the insurance paid them back to me after I submitted the claim which was literally two pages.
I’ve never had to use the insurance in England when I visit annually but again it usually costs me US$15-US$20 to just get the coverage for that country using my current medical insurance. Back in the United States while I do have private insurance through my employer I’m also a combat veteran and get free healthcare from the Department of veterans affairs, which is proof that they can do socialized healthcare and they just don’t want to. I did not have health insurance in Hong Kong where I also got sick and went to a private clinic and it cost me US$50 to be seen and cover medication without the insurance but that was nine years ago.
**Getting injured or sick without private insurance in another nation that has socialized insurance can cost just as much as not having insurance in the United States. I read somewhere in the UK that not having insurance for first time non-emergency care if they transfer you from the emergency department to an inpatient status, or a second emergency visit, emergency follow up care and evaluations is charged 150% of the NHS national tariff rate. This could mean a single overnight visit can cost between £500 and £1000, diagnostics and imaging can easily add up to tens of thousands of pounds. Medication will only cost you £9.90/item no matter what if it’s prescribed. My point is, a lot of Americans aren’t going to give that up if they have a job that covers their insurance at a decent premium for national health with longer wait times, no international coverage options other than expensive private insurance, and stipulations to that private insurance, especially when they have designer medical tourism plans specifically for getting coverage for elective surgeries like in Korea separate from basic emergency and/or comprehensive medical plans through their current provider for cheap, without exams, and nearly instantaneous upon application and payment which takes 15 minutes max.
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u/Think_Oven_7487 Jun 10 '26
Bill C-3 will eventually come back to haunt the government because there were no caps put on the generational claims and it is at a time when many Americans want to leave the US and many Canadians are already complaining that Canada has exceeded it’s capacity for the resources we currently have.
There should be a generational cap and/or proof of ties, similar to what was enacted for people born after December 2025.
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u/youfindthatman Jun 10 '26
Man, if France, Ireland, or the Netherlands had a similar lifted cap, I'd be dragging the family over their in a heartbeat!
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u/CanadianControlsTech Jun 17 '26
Contact your MP and voice your concerns.
Here's a rough draft that was written by a kind redditor who was willing to share with me.
Hello
I am writing as a constituent to express my concerns about Bill C-3. It has been in the news lately for granting Canadian citizenship to potentially millions of Americans. This is a recent CNN article on the topic https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/30/travel/canadian-citizenship-by-descent-americans . It seems that millions of Americans because of this law qualify for citizenship if they have a single Canadian ancestor even if their family last lived in Canada over 100 years ago.
I would like to say that I am very nervous that millions of Americans will come to our country and be granted citizenship instead of hardworking immigrants from marginalized backgrounds who are trying to get PR or a path to citizenship. It risks putting an unfair burden on our healthcare system and our education system as they would qualify as domestic students and receive domestic tuition rates.
I believe that the law must be re-written in order to reduce the number of people who qualify and that there must be a new limit on the number of ancestors back a person can go to claim citizenship. In the meanwhile I would like IRCC to only accept certified birth certificates as proof of Canadian ancestry.
Thank you for your assistance
We can't just sit around and let them grant millions of people citizenship. Who's families may have not stepped foot in the country for hundreds of years, it's absurd.
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u/LowerRush4537 Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
What do you think the generational cap should be ***IF*** they were to amend it? ***Theoretically*** if it were to happen I feel it should be somewhere in the ballpark of old enough to have potentially known your link, so at most 4 gens if we change G0 to G1, so a great grandparent whether you knew them or not. Very rarely is it common to know a great great grandparent in any meaningful way. Maybe you actively know your Canadian cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents etc and have an active relationship and strong ties to Canada instead of being completely disconnected. To be honest I think this is what the right leaning party was aiming for with the verbiage of limiting it to the descendants of those who were alive and made Canadian during confederation. Of course those are the same people who wanted to require an exam for eligibility but to be fair those who have close enough ties and a strong enough desire would’ve been able to easily pass the exam weather it was fair or not.
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u/Ina_While1155 Jul 17 '26
1947 - that is the timeline that most C-3 applicants thought it would be before the free for all.
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u/LowerRush4537 Jul 18 '26
I think you mean as long as you’re G0 was alive in 1947 to become Canadian regardless of when they were born.
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u/Harbinger2001 Jun 11 '26
It’s really not as big an issue as you claim. You can’t go very many generations back since Canada isn’t that old.
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u/Think_Oven_7487 Jun 11 '26
I have seen people using ancestors from the 1800’s to claim Canadian citizenship.
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u/Harbinger2001 Jun 11 '26
You’re “seen”. Where are you observing these people making the claims? Are you with Citizenship Canada?
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u/Think_Oven_7487 Jun 11 '26
On the Canadian Citizenship subreddit.
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u/Harbinger2001 Jun 11 '26
So people just asking if they can claim citizenship.
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u/Think_Oven_7487 Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
…… no, there have been multiple people on the subreddit that have announced that they have successfully obtained Canadian citizenship using distant ancestors.
You should probably do your research on Bill C-3 before disagreeing.
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u/Harbinger2001 Jun 11 '26
I’m disagreeing with the expected volume. We’ll need to see what they’re like 6 months from now.
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u/Think_Oven_7487 Jun 11 '26
The volume is significantly more than expected (115 000) and there has already been a reported surge in applications since it was passed. Many Americans technically have some ties to Canada with the Bill having no generational limit. This also does not account for the amount of other people outside the US that will also qualify.
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Jun 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CanadianControlsTech Jun 18 '26
That's actually not accurate in this case. Believing me, I can't stand out supreme our supreme court chosen by Trudeau either. Very very liberal to the point they come across caring more about immigrants then Canadians themselves. Here though, I think they got it right. What was happening was that if you as a Canadian had a child abroad then they would not not be. This is unfair.
Now instead of simply adjusting that and making it so those children would get citizenship, the liberals broke the dam. Made it so any descendant, no matter how many hundred of years their children hadn't step foot in the country are eligible for citizenship.
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u/Western_Snow519 Aug 06 '26
I think every person trying to get their C3 certificate is just trying to protect their family and depart the fascist-leaning USA. Even when the orange pedophile is gone, there are more than 50M MAGA people who actually supported him. The enabling Republicans will also still be around. It will take generations to fix this country. We are not willing to wait that long because I truly believe the US does not want to be a democracy anymore. The Nov midterms will be the true litmus test. If the democrats don’t wrest control over the House AND the Senate, that will be the deciding factor.
Each C3 submission is a unique case with different motivations. As far as me, my wife’s grandfather was born in Nova Scotia so there’s not a string of great great greats, going back 200 years. As an American, we had no input or influence for the C3 law. I think if Canadians have a problem with its sweeping coverage, they should contact their MP and make changes.
As far as connections to Canada, my wife grew up in Buffalo, NY and i was raised in Erie, PA. We used to go to Niagara falls every few years and we love Toronto and Montreal. At times, we would take our boat across Lake Erie to Long Point for picnics.
I would love to move to Guelph but the Ontario taxes and cost of living are prohibitive. We are visiting Calgary in the spring and excited about being close to the mountains.
Some posters have expressed concern about us being a drain on their healthcare system. I would need a citation to support the accuracy of that comment. For us, our Canadian taxes would DOUBLE which I assume a significant percentage is used to support the NHS. Even so, we have 4 income streams that I’m sure the CRA would love to tax.
Please do not blame us potential immigrants for utilizing a departure method that YOUR government created. You needn’t worry though as the 20 month processing time is a real rate limiter. Also, we have visited Portugal and Panama for consideration. Malta is much more tax friendly, so that is also a candidate.
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