Quebec Birth Certificates for Citizenship by Descent: What the Directeur de l'état civil Told Us

If your Canadian ancestor was born in Quebec, the birth certificate is often the hardest document in a citizenship by descent file. This month, Cédric Marin spoke with the Directeur de l'état civil (DEC), Quebec's Registrar of Civil Status, to find out why these requests are taking so long. Here is what we learned.

Why Quebec birth records are different

Quebec did not issue birth certificates the way other provinces did before 1994. Until then, births were recorded as baptisms in parish registers kept by the churches, with a second copy filed with the courts. On January 1, 1994, the Directeur de l'état civil took over as the single keeper of Quebec's civil register.

Once a record is more than 100 years old, the original register moves to Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ). For most great-grandparents born in Quebec, that means the only primary record of the birth is a baptism entry in a parish register.

What the DEC told us

When the DEC receives a request for the birth certificate of someone born more than 100 years ago, the file is sent to a specialized team that handles dossiers particuliers (special files). That same team handles:

• Requests connected to citizenship by descent and other immigration files;
• Birth and death certificates requested for litigation, including claims tied to the tobacco lawsuits; and
• Ordinary Quebecers fixing typos or other errors in their records.

A few points stood out:

• Expedited service does not help. The three-day expedited option no longer applies once a file is flagged for the special files team.
• The team is at capacity. We were told the unit is maxed out.
• Deaths outside Quebec add work. Many immigration files involve an ancestor who died in the United States or elsewhere. Before issuing anything, the DEC has to update the record with that death, especially when the birth certificate was never requested before.
• No timelines. Despite repeated questions, the DEC would not give a processing time or say when the last completed file was submitted. Files are handled first in, first out.

"I think they are trying to avoid what IRCC lives with every day: thousands of people calling for updates because they were once given a number of months. For now, there is simply no timeline for these requests."
Cédric Marin

What you can do in the meantime

Waiting on the DEC does not have to stall your file. Here is what we do in our practice:

1. Submit the act of birth from the civil register. Before 1994, a birth in Quebec was recorded by the parish, usually within a few days, in a register kept in two copies. Under the Civil Code of the time, one copy stayed with the parish and the other was deposited with the court. The State's copy is now held by BAnQ, and many of these registers are digitized and publicly accessible. We file a copy of the entry with a permalink that takes the officer directly to the page. Our current approach is to file the application with these records, since, as explained below, we believe they are the best evidence.
2. Order a certified copy from BAnQ. BAnQ issues certified reproductions of baptism, marriage and burial records that are more than 100 years old. Requests go through BAnQ's online form only.
3. Apply to the DEC with the full package. Include the certified baptism record, the ancestor's death certificate, and a letter showing your interest in the record (your direct line of descent).

When the BAnQ certified copy and the DEC birth certificate arrive, we send them to IRCC through the IRCC Web Form to update the application. We do all three because some IRCC officers ask for a DEC birth certificate and others do not. If an officer asks for one after we file, responding is part of the support we provide until a decision is made, at no additional legal cost (terms apply). We explain why a solid primary record matters so much in our post on surrender letters and the citizenship proof standard.

Is a DEC birth certificate required? Our view

In our view, no. We still go through the DEC process so a file is not held up, but when an officer asks for a DEC certificate, this is how we respond:

• The law does not require it. Nothing in the Citizenship Act calls for a provincial birth certificate. Section 14 of the Citizenship Regulations, No. 2 requires only "evidence that establishes that the applicant is a citizen." IRCC can set practical requirements to help with processing, but those are not legal requirements. In our view, it is not procedurally fair to require an applicant to wait many months for a document that adds nothing.
• IRCC's own guide accepts it. Guide CIT 0001 lists a "baptismal certificate or record (including copies or certified records)" as a document from the original authority, as long as the baptism took place within a reasonable time after the birth. That list applies to each Canadian parent, grandparent and earlier ancestor in the claim.
• How we read the pre-1994 rule. The Guide also says IRCC does not accept birth certificates issued in Quebec before January 1, 1994. We believe this line was written for applicants who were themselves born in Quebec and are proving their own citizenship. For example, someone born in Montreal in 1990 is a citizen because they were born in Canada, and to get a citizenship certificate they would need a current certificate from the DEC rather than an old one issued before 1994, often by the parish. The Guide's wording seems to point the same way, since it tells you to contact the DEC if you need to replace your Quebec certificate. The rule now appears to be read more broadly, to cover an ancestor's birth record as well, and in our view it may never have been meant to apply that way. A claim by descent traces citizenship from parent to child back to an ancestor born in Canada, so what needs to be shown for that ancestor is the birth in Canada. IRCC's document checklist (CIT 0014) appears to draw the same line: an applicant born in Canada provides their own Canadian birth certificate, while for each Canadian parent, grandparent and earlier ancestor IRCC accepts one or more listed documents, including "any other evidence" of Canadian citizenship. This is our commentary on how the rule may have been intended. It is not legal advice or legal information, IRCC may see it differently, and every file turns on its own facts.
• The original entry is the better evidence. The act was written within days of the birth by the officer the law charged with recording it. For a birth in 1850 or 1870, the register was kept in two originals and the State's copy was deposited with the court every year (under the Civil Code of Lower Canada, the Superior Court), which is how it came to be held in public archives by BAnQ. A certificate issued today for a birth 100 to 150 years ago is drawn from that same register. It restates the entry in a modern format and adds no new fact.
• The standard is a balance of probabilities. The question is whether the birth in Quebec is more likely than not, not whether a more modern document could be obtained. A contemporaneous act from the civil register meets that standard on its own.

What this means in practice. Whatever the original intent of the pre-1994 rule, IRCC is increasingly asking for a birth certificate reissued by Quebec, in more and more files. For that reason, we still believe it makes sense to order the BAnQ certified copy and apply to the DEC. The real question is timing: submit now with the act from the civil register and send the DEC certificate to IRCC once it arrives, which is our current approach, or wait for the DEC certificate before submitting.

If an officer still wants the certified copy or the DEC certificate, we ask that the application be held until it arrives rather than refused, since the delay at the province is outside the applicant's control.

How we can help

Quebec lines come up often in files going back to a great-grandparent. Our associate lawyers work with our staff genealogist, Kendra Gaede, to attempt to source the parish entry, order certified copies from BAnQ, and build the argument for why that record proves the birth. For more on what we see in these files, read Citizenship by Descent: Lessons Learned From Our Recent Files.

If your Canadian ancestor was born in Quebec, book a consultation with our team.

This post is general information based on a conversation with the Directeur de l'état civil in September 2026, not legal advice. Processes can change without notice.