For married couples from Canada · Reviewed June 2026
Canada permits surrogacy, but only the unpaid kind — and the waiting lists show it. Going abroad is lawful for Canadian intended parents, and the whole journey turns on two pieces of paper: the birth certificate issued in your names where your child is born, and the proof of Canadian citizenship that brings your family home.
Nothing on this page criticises Canada's framework — it reflects a deliberate ethical choice. But that choice has practical consequences for couples who cannot wait years.
Most couples who write to us are already in their late thirties or forties after years of IVF. A four-year domestic wait is not a neutral delay — it is the difference between using your own embryos and not. That, more than money, is why Canadians come to us.
In all three of our program countries, the intended parents are the legal parents at birth by operation of law. Ukraine writes it into Article 123 of its Family Code; Georgia has run this framework since 1997; Armenia follows the same model. The surrogate has no parental claim to assert, and there is no adoption or custody hearing — the certificate simply issues in your names.
One flat price across all three countries, paid in milestones, in US dollars. Full inclusions on the cost page; the three destinations compared on the programs page.
Your child's Canadian citizenship flows from you, not from the place of birth. Since Bill C-3 came into force on 15 December 2025, the rules have two tracks — and which track you are on should be checked before the embryo transfer, not after the birth.
Nothing changed for you: your child born abroad is a Canadian citizen at birth. We document the genetic link to the Canadian parent — IRCC expects it in assisted-reproduction cases — and file the proof-of-citizenship application with the birth records we prepare.
Under Bill C-3 you can now pass citizenship on — the old first-generation limit is gone — provided you show a substantial connection to Canada: 1,095 days of physical presence before your child's birth. If your presence history is thin, we flag it in the first consultation, because it can change which of you should be the genetic parent.
After citizenship is confirmed, the first Canadian passport issues and you fly home. Plan on several weeks in the program country after the birth for translations, the application and the passport; your coordinator runs the timeline with you.
Citizenship is federal; family status is provincial. Most provinces offer a straightforward court declaration recognising you both as parents on the provincial record — useful for health cards, schools and inheritance.
Foreign birth certificate with apostille and certified translation, the surrogacy agreement, genetic evidence and the citizenship certificate. We hand it over complete — it is the same file we built before the birth.
Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and most others have well-worn procedures; a family lawyer files the application and hearings are rarely contested. We are glad to introduce Canadian lawyers who have worked with Ukrainian, Georgian and Armenian files.
Provincial recognition aligns every domestic record with the reality your child has lived since birth — two parents, one family.
No. The AHRA's compensation ban governs conduct in Canada; it does not criminalise Canadian residents who join a program in a country where compensated surrogacy is lawful and regulated. The legal work for you is on the documentation side — citizenship and provincial parentage — and both are well-established paths.
Only if the Canadian parent passing on citizenship was themselves born outside Canada. Parents born or naturalized in Canada transmit citizenship to a child born abroad exactly as before Bill C-3. If you are in the affected group, the 1,095 days of physical presence must predate the birth — one more reason the citizenship review belongs at the start of the program, not the end.
Budget several weeks. The local birth certificate issues quickly — immediately in Ukraine, within about one to two weeks via the registry in Georgia, within days in Armenia — and the balance of the stay is translations, the citizenship application and the passport. We prepare every document that can be prepared before the birth so the clock starts as short as possible.
If time is on your side, honestly — yes, and Canadian agencies run ethical altruistic programs. Our clients are usually couples for whom two to four more years is medically unaffordable, or who have already had a domestic match fall through. In the free consultation we will tell you frankly if waiting at home is the better plan for your situation.
Some do, knowingly: programs run only through the western and central regions, births take place in Kyiv or Lviv under full security protocols, and nobody in our care has been harmed in four years of conflict. Others prefer Georgia or Armenia at the same flat price precisely to retire the question. Both choices are reasonable, and we will not push you either way.
We will check the citizenship track that applies to you, map the timeline against your embryos and your province, and send a written summary you can take to a Canadian lawyer. Evenings Eastern time work fine for us.
Novaparent is an agency registered in Ukraine and works exclusively with married heterosexual couples with a medical indication. More about us in the founder's letter.