IRONY: My dad, & my older + younger siblings, are eligible for citizenship - but I'm not!

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Permalink Reply by Lindsay Morris on January 6, 2012 at 4:53pm

PS Sorry for the garbled English there. That last paragraph should read: "So. I guess I'm posting here to double check -- does anyone know of cause for hope in regard to my case? Am I interpreting the law correctly? (I've figured all this out in the course of preparing my siblings' applications while we wait for my dad's certificate to arrive.) Perhaps someone knows of exceptions made? Otherwise this 1977 Citizenship Act seems quite cruel and arbitrary -- dooming kids born in those three years (who didn't realize they were eligible until they were older than 28). Any hope? Any at all???"

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Permalink Reply by Antoine Gerald Beaudoin on January 6, 2012 at 8:57pm

As the law stands following Bill C-37:   1.) someone born abroad (before C-37 took effect on April 17, 2009) to a Canadian citizen who was also born abroad, is automatically a Canadian citizen- even if the parent is the "umpteenth" generation born abroad;   2.) Canadian citizens born abroad NO LONGER must "file for retention of citizenship" before attaining 28 years of age, per Bill C-37 (again, effective 4/17/2009) - but the requirement to "file for retention" is still a requirement for all Canadian citizens born abroad as the 2+ generation-born-abroad, if they reached the age of 28 before April 17,2009;   3.) Bill C-37 contains an exclusion clause that NOW limits citizenship to only the 2nd generation born abroad (after 4/17/2009);      4.) and, ANY child born abroad in the 2nd generation to a Canadian citizen also born abroad, and said parent is recognized as a Canadian citizen only as a result of Bill C-37, the child is NOT eligible for citizenship by birth --- despite the fact that Bill C-37 recognizes the parent's citizenship retroactive to the time of birth of the parent. •••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Anyone born (>/=2nd generation abroad) before April 17, 1981, is required to have Filed for Retention of Citizenship. There is no pardon for having failed to do so. (This really sucks, since anyone whose parent was Canadian - but did not know it -  or if the parent was a newly recognized Canadian retroactive to birth  ..... the child would never have KNOWN to file in the first place. After April 17, 2009, any 2nd generation-born-abroad child is free of the need to file for retention if their birthday is ON or AFTER April 17, 1981 - as long as their Canadian parent was recognized as a Canadian citizen at the time of their birth and not as a "retroactive citizenship" resulting from Bill C-37. •••••••••••••••••  Any way around this? Only if Don Chapman or others are able to get parliament/PM to once again pass a citizenship law that provides greater clarity and simplicity than those incremental improvements of the past.      I am truly sorry that I can't offer you more positive news. I wish you the best, and hope for change.

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Permalink Reply by Frank Compton on January 7, 2012 at 12:20am

Unfortunately, it does not appear that you are a Canadian citizen under C-37 based on the failure to file for retention of citizenship. 

Your father is a Canadian citizen unless his father (your grandfather) became a U.S. citizen before 1947. 

Regarding your brother, when I completed the interactive questionnaire using his information, it says he is not a Canadian citizen unless his birth was registered with Canada.  Was it?

The questionnaire wasn't sure about your sister, but did state that if she was born to a parent who had always been a Canadian citizen, then she is likely Canadian also. 

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules/index.asp

 

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Permalink Reply by Lindsay Morris on January 7, 2012 at 12:05pm

Hmm. For my sister. I chose "I was born between January 1, 1947, and February 14, 1977, and at least one of my birth parents was a Canadian citizen at the time of my birth. "

I chose this because although my father's birth was not registered at the Canadian embassy, he is and always has been a Canadian citizen, by my understanding. That is, he's not applying for citizenship by applying for the citizenship certificate -- he's simply applying for recognition of the preexisting legal fact of his citizenship. Maybe I'm getting tangled up in legalese, though?

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Permalink Reply by Lindsay Morris on January 7, 2012 at 12:10pm

Thanks so much for these replies, they're VERY helpful. I find myself wondering whether or not my father's case was affected by C-37 in the first place. He is the first generation born abroad before 1947, to a legally married Canadian couple that at that time was still Canadian and had no other nationality. I guess that's where it gets tricky?

(I should add -- he is eligible for Canadian citizenship in the first place because his parents DID NOT TAKE another citizenship before 1948/1962, respectively.)

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Permalink Reply by Frank Compton on January 7, 2012 at 11:34pm

I'm a bit confused. I thought your sister was born in the "early 80s", not between 1947 & 1977. 

Your father has apparently always been a Canadian citizen, so he was not helped or harmed by C-37. 

If your sister was born in the early 80s, she is likely a Canadian citizen.  However, it does not appear that your brother is Canadian unless HIS (i.e. your brother's) birth was registered.

Regarding your brother, maybe you're getting confused by the question: "Was at least one of your parents born in Canada, or granted Canadian citizenship before you were born?" This question should be answered "no".  Your father was never "granted" citizenship (i.e. naturalized).  He was born to a Canadian-born British subject father and became a Canadian citizen on January 1, 1947.   

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Permalink Reply by Nikkei Jay on Sunday

Erm quick calculation.....

My Sister born in Dec 82 to a Father who had a 'GRANT' (which was probably illegal under human rights) and who is now retroactive....is not a citizen then? Surely there is a way to prove those Grants were illegal during the 2000s? and based upon that - those children born to granted citizens should be Canadian!

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Permalink Reply by Frank Compton on Sunday

Nikkei, as I recall, your father is the child of a Canadian citizen mother, and received a grant of citizenship in the early 2000s.  If so, that made him a citizen from that date forward, meaning that no child of his born before the early 2000s (including your sister, born in 1982) has a claim to Canadian citizenship.  

With the passage of C-37, your father became a citizen retroactive to his date of birth.  However, because C-37 limits citizenship to the first generation born abroad, you and your siblings still do not have a claim to citizenship.

This is a case of gender inequality, and if your father's father had been a Canadian, things could have been different.    

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Permalink Reply by Nikkei Jay on Sunday

Thank you Frank, kind of you to help.

Yes I was just going through the old cic rules and reading a letter sent to parliament by Kenney himself stating that His government did not agree with the passing of citizenship to 2nd gen even if they had parents who had lived there and were Canadian.

Kenney who claims He knows nothing of the problems c-37 would cause, knew full well...Especially since this letter was the review of c-37. 

The law has been deliberately set up to deny citizenship to people born to Female Canadians by firstly adding a wedlock problem (even when married to a Brit) then a 'grant' ensuring these children were not retroactive citizens and then using 2009 ensure that this blatant disregard for law continued but not for those from Males who can still confer citizenship to those born before 2009 willy nilly!!

So much for wanting to 'stop' citizenship being passed on beyond 1st gen...seems more like a knowingly deliberate ploy to keep Females as lesser citizens..including their families.

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