Citizenship application for children
- Thread starter mr-moose
- Start date
Hey, I was hoping this could be a good thread to piggy back off. I am a Canadian citizen living in the US, currently. All of my kids were born in the US as well.
I'm trying to apply online, however I can only apply up to 3 kids at a time. I have 4 kids. Would it be possible to submit 2 applications with 2 kids on each application?
Or do I need to just submit this through the mail?
I'm trying to apply online, however I can only apply up to 3 kids at a time. I have 4 kids. Would it be possible to submit 2 applications with 2 kids on each application?
Or do I need to just submit this through the mail?
Are you a Canadian citizen by birth? Descent? Naturalized?
If by birth or naturalized and children were born after you became a citizen, then your children should all be citizens. It's a different type of app - they are citizens and you're asking for documentation of that, not 'grant of citizenship' as this thread is mostly about.
Start here, you'll be applying for proof of citizenship / citizenshp certificates:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-citizenship/proof-citizenship.html
I don't know about how many on one form. It may be possible to apply for passports for them at the same time, don't know.
I appreciate that. My main concern is about submitting an online application with four kids and the ability to split them up.
I don't know about that combined application but since each of them has citizenship independent of each other, there should be no problem to separate them any way you like.
A question for you (or for anyone who has received citizenship for a child through this process): does the certificate indicate if the child received citizenship by naturalization?
Or does anyone know whether this is considered by naturalization or (by some rule I'm not aware of) by descent?
No, it doesn't say anything in particular. But I've never seen any certificate of a child by descent. Probably the effective date on it will be the same as the child's DoB?
This category is definitely a naturalization, the application type is "apply for citizenship grant". If a child was born BEFORE his parent became a Canadian citizen, he has to go through naturalization.
In the opposite scenario, if the child is born to a Canadian parent, he is a Canadian by descent, and he has to 'apply for a citizenship certificate' - a completely different application type. The child can't even apply for 'grant' and naturalization because he's already a citizen by descent.
Thanks, was wondering if you can tell from the certificate.
This statement of yours makes sense to me.
No, this doesn't make sense - or at least not true in all situations.
Our specific situation (which is what I think this thread is mostly about) - child born of Canadian citizen by descent, abroad, subsequently becomes PR and applies for grant of citizenship.
So does not fit your criteria: born after the parent becomes a citizen, but not eligible at birth for citizenship.
I think this means the child is a citizen by naturalization but am not 100% certain.
There are only two ways for a child to be/become a citizen. They can qualify for citizenship at birth or they can immigrate.
Citizenship at birth: If they are born in Canada. If they are born abroad, while having a parent who is a citizen who can also pass down citizenship. There are some Citizen parents who cannot pass on their citizenship, namely those who were born abroad. If you were born in Canada, right now you can pass down your citizenship. If you were naturalized, and your child was born after you were naturalized, you can pass down your citizenship.
If a child is born abroad and does NOT have Canadian citizenship at birth (even if they have a parent who is a citizen at the time they were born), they must: obtain PR, land in Canada, and then apply for citizenship. Any child who has a Citizen parent can apply for citizenship immediately once they get PR. During the PR process, you have to explain why your child is not a citizen.
So: any child who becomes a PR and then becomes a citizen is a citizen by naturalization. Regardless of whether the process is 5(2) ie. because the parent is a citizen (citizen-parent who is citizen by descent).
Sorry if this seems obvious, but I wanted to know if the citizenship fo the child (now PR, applying on basis that parent is citizen) was in any way 'tainted' by the parent being citizen by descent. (It does not have the restriction that citizenship by descent has, in other words)
(Which may sound odd to some, but believe me I was very angry when I discovered my citizenship had been 'tainted' by Harper's change in law.)
We finally did get everything in the mail.
Man, government has some serious delays and issues with really basic and simple things. Note, I'm not referring to the ~6 months to get all this done from date of sending - overall this is not so bad and I know those who are applying for naturalisation as adults or even just certificates of citizenship are waiting for much longer.
Simplifying somewhat timeline just to give a sense (this info from the letter and certificate and envelope):
-effective date of citizenship early March (also date on actual certificate);
-letter with all of this information dated (and presumably printed) almost exactly a month later;
-envelope franked (stamped by IRCC postal machine) last third of april;
-actually received early May, Toronto area.
Presumably effective date of citizenship is either when some approval received. After that, a month to just print out the letter saying this? (Possibly or probably this is also the date the certificate of citizenship was printed).
Then, another ~two weeks to put it in an envelope? Seems like they took some time to actually hand it over to Canada Post, because ~two weeks from Sydney to Toronto sounds a LOT longer than normal Canada Post service for a standard full-sized envelope (which CP calls oversized envelope - but they did pay the standard rate).
This is terribly slow for really simple, basic stuff.
On separate point - neither the letter nor certificate specify how citizenship received, just effective date. Which I still find weird since after al Harper government did create separate 'classes' of citizenship (cit by descent is a different type).