Planning your application.

You need documents that establish the unbroken chain of Canadian parentage between you and your Canadian-born ancestor. For each generation in the chain, that typically means a birth certificate (or baptism record for Quebec) and a marriage certificate where a name change occurred.

You'll also need two pieces of ID for the applicant, two recent passport-style photos, and any name-change documents in your own direct line (marriage certificates, court orders, etc.).

Yes, for every person in the direct line of descent between you and your Canadian-born ancestor. That means your birth certificate, your parent's birth certificate, your grandparent's birth certificate, and so on back to the Canadian-born ancestor.

For Quebec ancestors, a baptism record stands in for a birth certificate. For older generations where birth certificates weren't yet issued, baptism records or similar church records are the standard substitute.

No. Quebec civil registration did not begin until 1926, and even after that, baptism records remained the primary vital record for most Quebeckers for decades. IRCC accepts Quebec baptism records in lieu of birth certificates.

The record needs to be a certified copy from the parish or diocesan archives, or obtained through BAnQ (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec).

Before 1994, Quebec did not issue standalone civil birth certificates. What you'll find labeled as a "birth certificate" from Quebec for someone born before 1994 is actually a transcription of the baptism record.

For IRCC purposes, it's almost always better to request the actual baptism record directly from the parish or BAnQ rather than relying on a government-issued transcription. The original document carries more weight and contains more information.

FamilySearch is the best free resource — operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it's genuinely free and has the largest collection of historical vital records online. Most Quebec baptism records are indexed there.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) offers free access to Canadian census records and some vital records. BAnQ has digitized Quebec civil and church records. Ancestry and Newspapers.com are paid, but many public libraries provide free access to both through their subscription portals.

You need marriage certificates anywhere a name changed in your direct line. If a person in your ancestry chain took a spouse's surname, you need the marriage certificate showing the connection between their birth name and married name.

If no name changed, you don't need the marriage certificate for that generation. But marriage certificates are often useful anyway because they establish parents' names, which can help verify the chain when other records are ambiguous.

For your own research, absolutely — these are invaluable tools. For your actual application, the answer depends on the record type.

Images of original baptism records, census records, and historical documents from FamilySearch or Ancestry are generally acceptable as secondary evidence. But IRCC wants certified copies of primary vital records (birth, marriage, death certificates) from the issuing authority — not printouts of genealogy site images.

No. IRCC does not require apostilles for citizenship applications. Don't waste the time or money.

Some immigration processes in other countries require apostilles, but Canadian citizenship by descent is not one of them. Certified copies of vital records are all you need.