Dual Citizenship

[emossor]

I was wondering if I may have dual Canadian citizenship. My father was born on a US Air Force base in Newfoundland, and his mother was a Canadian citizen from birth. I have lived in the US my whole life, and for the most part so did my father. He is a dual citizen but I want to know if that is passed on to me as well?

 

[hawk39]

I was wondering if I may have dual Canadian citizenship. My father was born on a US Air Force base in Newfoundland, and his mother was a Canadian citizen from birth. I have lived in the US my whole life, and for the most part so did my father. He is a dual citizen but I want to know if that is passed on to me as well?

1. When was your father born?
2. Why was his father (your grandfather) at a US Air Force base in Newfoundland?
3. When were you born?

 

[emossor]

My father was born in the 1950s. His father was an American citizen and a member of the US Air Force. I was born in 1996.

 

[hawk39]

Your situation is bit complicated. Unlike the current Citizenship Act under 3(2), there's nothing in the 1947 Canadian Citizenship Act that restricts birthright citizenship to a child born on Canadian soil to a foreign soldier, and because he was born in 1950, his birth would be governed by that Act; however if your father's birth certificate was issued by the US Air Force, he might have been deemed solely a US citizen at birth because dual citizenship was not allowed until 1977. Did your father have to apply for Canadian citizenship, and if he did, when did he receive it?

 

[emossor]

I don’t believe he ever applied for citizenship, I thought he was granted dual citizenship at birth due to the fact that his mother was a Canadian citizen, but it sounds like maybe that couldn’t legally be the case? It’s possible that I’m mistaken but hypothetically if he were a dual citizen due to these circumstances, would that affect my status?

 

[hawk39]

I just found this from Wikipedia, under "Previous Legislation", it says that between 1947 and 1950, there were no restrictions for child born on Canadian soil to foreign diplomats/representatives. However, this loophole was closed in 1950, so that if the 'responsible parent' (married father or unmarried mother) was the foreign diplomat/representative, then the child was not a citizen by birth on Canadian soil. The source link seems to be an academic database that you need to have credentials to use, so I can't verify this information. However, if this is true, then it means that your father would been granted citizenship by descent today as a first generation born abroad under the 2009 Act as a "lost Canadian" and can apply for his citizenship certificate. Unfortunately, that would make you the second generation and ineligible for citizenship from him because of the first generation limit.

However, this restriction has been retained in the law since then, and even today, it is written as 3(2) of the current Citizenship Act, so it is possible that even with a Canadian mother, your father may not even be eligible for citizenship by descent.

If, on the other hand, your father was deemed to be a citizen by birth on Canadian soil, that would make you the first generation, and you would be eligible.

The only way to know for sure would be to apply for the proofs of citizenship. Who issued your father's birth certificate, the USAF or Newfoundland? If the USAF did, then you should apply for your father first before yours. If Newfoundland did, then you can try to apply for your proof with his birth certificate. That's all I can think of without being able to verify what was written in Wikipedia, so I wish you the best of luck if you choose to pursue this.