Eligibility for Citizenship

Hello,

Canuck25,

dpenabill,

jilljac1 wrote: Thank you that is very informative. And I have a number of questions for my mother regarding the details of her citizenship (unfortunately we currently live on different continents.) The reason she was naturalized was that she was born into Canada, and lived there the first 10 years of her life before moving to the US and acquiring citizenship. Does that still sound incorrect? I know she has not had a Canadian passport in some years. I wonder if her applying for a passport might be the most swift route for answers? Or her requesting a certificate of citizenship if she does not still have one in her possession? As the process time for citizenship applications appears to take years, and a fairly substantial application fee. Another concern I have is that I do not, nor have not lived in Canada. Of course much of what is on the internet is directed towards permanent residents of Canada looking to gain citizenship. I'm not sure if I would need to be residing in Canada permanently, or any specific length of time, or ever to apply. Thank you for the help, I know this sounds knit-picky, but I want to have all the facts prior to applying.

First a note of irony: if you are a Canadian citizen (and either you are or you are not . . . you would not apply to become a citizen if you are, but rather apply for proof you are a citizen), then you would not be eligible to become a Permanent Resident. To become a Canadian citizen (not to be confused with obtaining proof of or recognized as a Canadian citizen), you would need to first become a Canadian Permanent Resident . . . and no less than four years after that (given residency requirements to take effect in the near future, no later than mid-2015) you could (if you meet the qualifications) be eligible for a grant of citizenship, to become a naturalized Canadian citizen.

I sense that is the long and expensive process you are referring to.

If, in contrast, you are a Canadian citizen, the application for proof of that is not complicated (well, it does require some details which might not be easy to obtain), not particularly expensive (I believe the fee is $75), and the processing timeline should be less than six months. There is no need for your mother to do it first (if she does not currently have proof of Canadian citizenship).

The reason she was naturalized was that she was born into Canada, and lived there the first 10 years of her life before moving to the US and acquiring citizenship. Does that still sound incorrect?

Not sure if "incorrect" is the right way to describe this. I believe it would have been technically incorrect to do it that way, but there is plenty of possibility for it to have been done that way anyway. That is why I referred to it as an "incongruity," because it is not what one would expect, and thus it seems unlikely, but that could nonetheless describe your mother's status and how that came to be.

I am not sure what you have looked at, but forget information about becoming a naturalized Canadian until after you have determined whether you are already a Canadian citizen or not. (That is, no need to look into the naturlized route, which requires becoming a PR first and living in Canada for over four years, if you are already a citizen.)

Hopefully you have already looked at and considered the information CIC provides about this, starting with the CIC page titled "Determine your eligiility -- Proof of citizenship.

That page explicitly says:

If you are not sure if you are a citizen or not, applying for a citizenship certificate is the official way to see if you have Canadian citizenship.

The web page Changes to citizenship rules as of April 2009 offers more information that you might find useful . . . although, again, it mostly comes down to making an application for a certificate of citizenship, for which your birth certificate and your mother's birth certificate will probably be the key documents you need.

That site says:

Also, people born abroad to a Canadian parent after 1947 who lost or never had citizenship due to former citizenship laws also became citizens under the 2009 law, but only if they had a Canadian parent who was born or naturalized in Canada. People who formally renounced their citizenship or had it revoked because of fraud did not automatically become citizens under the 2009 law. Citizenship was automatic and went back to the day the person was born or lost citizenship, depending on the situation. These people do not have to apply for citizenship, but may need to apply for a certificate to prove their citizenship.

As long as you have a certified copy of your mother's birth certificate, showing her birth in Canada, and yours, the main issue then is whether she became a naturalized U.S. citizen and in that process renounced her Canadian citizenship. See the application form for the details which you need to provide. (I believe you have to disclose your mother's other citizenships, her absence from Canada prior to 1977, and details about how she became a U.S. citizen . . . better for you, I believe, if her U.S. citizenship was recognized as citizenship by birth rather than naturalized.)




Making the application:
You need certified copies of your birth certificate and your mother's. As I previously noted, I think the fee is just $75 Cdn (less than $70 U.S. today), and the timeline should be less than six months.

The instruction guide (follow links at the CIC site) states:

If you were born outside Canada to a Canadian parent on or after January 1, 1947, then send the following supporting documents: * A birth certificate which lists your parents (issued by the responsible government authority in the country where you were born); * Proof that one or both of your natural parents was, at the time of your birth, a Canadian citizen (i.e. your parent’s provincial or territorial birth certificate, naturalization certificate, Canadian citizenship certificate or registration of birth abroad certificate); * Two (2) pieces of personal identification, such as a passport, a driver’s licence and a health insurance card, one of which must have your photo on it; * If neither of your parents were born or naturalized in Canada before your birth, and either of your parents, or any grandparents, was employed outside Canada in or with the Canadian Armed Forces, the federal public administration or the public service of a province or territory, other than as a locally engaged person, please submit evidence of your parents or grandparents’ employment (see section on Crown servants in this guide for further instructions and acceptable proof of your parent/grandparent’s employment as a Crown servant); * Other documents, such as a marriage certificate/divorce certificate and/or a legal name change certificate (if applicable)

Your mother's US citizenship is indeed acquired by birth because she was born to US parents, even though they were abroad.