New Canadian law offers ‘lost Canadians’ full voting, travel rights

By Guy Page

A recent change to Canadian citizenship law could make as many as one in three Vermonters eligible to claim Canadian citizenship and obtain a Canadian passport, according to Candian immigration officials and a Canadian immigration law firm.

“If you live in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont or Maine — and your family tree contains a name like Tremblay, Gagnon, Bouchard, Lavoie, or an anglicized version like Bushey, Loway, or Shampine — there is a serious chance you are already a Canadian citizen and don’t know it,” Canadian immigration officials stated in an April 19 press release. 

“You may be one of the Lost Canadians: people whose Canadian citizenship was severed by an outdated provision of the Citizenship Act, and who have now been retroactively restored under Bill C-3 — popularly known as the Lost Canadians Act, which came into force on December 15, 2025.”

Both the Canadian law and current U.S. law allow dual citizens to vote in their countries’ elections. A similar situation exists with Israel and the U.S., in which dual citizenship allows voting in both nations’ elections, provided the voters meet registration requirements.

As reported April 26 by CIC News, a website maintained by the Cohen Immigration Law Firm, Canada on Dec. 15, 2025, eliminated its “first-generation limit” on citizenship by descent, expanding eligibility to individuals who can trace their lineage to a Canadian ancestor, going back at least as far as great-grandparents. The change applies to people born before that date, effectively recognizing a broader pool of descendants as Canadian citizens under the law.

The impact is expected to be especially significant in Vermont, where roughly 30% of residents have French-Canadian ancestry. Much of that lineage dates to a wave of migration from Quebec to New England between 1840 and 1930. By 1860, more than 16,000 French Canadians reportedly had settled in Vermont.

Under the updated law, eligible Vermonters can apply for proof of Canadian citizenship and, if approved, obtain a Canadian passport. Dual U.S.-Canadian citizens are allowed under both countries’ laws and gain the right to live and work in Canada, vote in Canadian elections, and potentially run for office there.

The United States allows dual citizenship, as confirmed on the government website USA.gov:

Whether you were born an American citizen or became one through naturalization, if you have dual citizenship, you:

• Owe allegiance to both the U.S. and a foreign country
• Must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the U.S.
• Do not have to choose one nationality over the other. As a U.S. citizen, you may naturalize in another country without risking your U.S. citizenship.