Bill C-24 and retroactive citizenship

[joe903267]

Does bill C-24 give me citizenship?

My grandfather was born in Ontario in 1941 to a Canadian mother and an immigrant father. They left Canada in 1946 to come to the USA. My grandmother who was a US Citizen had my mother in Nov. 1967 in the USA. I was born in 1993 in the USA. Am I a citizen now?
Bill C-24 says
"Citizenship is to be granted retroactively to those individuals who were born or naturalized in Canada as well as to those who were British subjects residing in Canada prior to 1947 (or prior to April 1949, in the case of Newfoundland) who were not eligible for Canadian citizenship when the first Canadian Citizenship Act took effect."
Since it says that it gives retroactive citizenship, my mother was a Canadian citizen at the time of my birth so does that mean I am to since i was also born before the 2009 cutoff? I was going to use the Am I a citizen tool on the website but it's still being updated.

Thanks for the help

 

[Marypetty]

It may depend on the date your family left Canada. As per usual, the rulings are very difficult to work out and in some cases incomprehensible. So, I would wait for the 'Am I a citizen' tool to be up and running.

 

[Leon]

Does your mother have a citizenship certificate? If not, she should try to apply for it first. If she gets it, then you can try to apply based on hers.

If you get it, because you are getting it based on your mother, you would not be able to pass Canadian citizenship to your children if they are born outside Canada.

 

[joe903267]

Thanks for the replies. My mother does not have her citizenship certificate right now. They left in 1946 btw. They've been updating the citizenship tool for almost two months now.
These laws are very confusing.

 

[Leon]

Thanks for the replies. My mother does not have her citizenship certificate right now. They left in 1946 btw. They've been updating the citizenship tool for almost two months now.
These laws are very confusing.

They are very confusing and the citizenship act has changed a few times so in some cases, it matters exactly when someone was born or when they left or if they were born outside Canada, in which country etc. The only way to find out for sure is have your mother apply and if she gets it, then you apply.

 

[joe903267]

They are VERY confusing! I am hoping the citizenship tool comes back up soon. I don't know why it's taking so long for the tool to be updated.

 

[Leon]

I wouldn't wait for it to be up. I would just go ahead. What will you do if the tool says that you are probably not a citizen? Not apply? What if the tool is wrong?

 

[Alurra71]

I am curious about this myself.

If his mother was born in the USA to a Canadian dad, wouldn't SHE be the first born outside Canada and therefore unable to pass along her citizenship because the OP was also born outside Canada?

 

[screech339]

I am curious about this myself.

If his mother was born in the USA to a Canadian dad, wouldn't SHE be the first born outside Canada and therefore unable to pass along her citizenship because the OP was also born outside Canada?

The OP would be able to get citizenship by descent if the OP was born before April 17, 2009 which I suspects that the OP was born way before that date.

So the OP would not be able to pass on citizenship if the OP's child was born on or after April 17, 2009. If the child was born before that date, the child would still get citizenship despite being 3rd generation canadian.

 

[joe903267]

Thank you for all the replies.
I forgot to say that my grandfather's mother was a canadian, I'm not sure about his father because he came to Canada from italy. They then left in 1946 and went to the US. So I'm not sure if my mother or grandfather were citizens until the 2009 law. But I saw in bill c-24 that it grants retroactive citizenship. So if that's the case that would mean they were citizens at the time if my birth and I was born before the April 2009 cutoff. So I think it old be a citizen but as I said, I'm not sure.

 

[Leon]

The OP would be able to get citizenship by descent if the OP was born before April 17, 2009 which I suspects that the OP was born way before that date.

So the OP would not be able to pass on citizenship if the OP's child was born on or after April 17, 2009. If the child was born before that date, the child would still get citizenship despite being 3rd generation canadian.

Agreed. It all depends on what law applied back when. If the mother is a citizen, then she probably already was a citizen when her children were born in which case they would be 2nd generation born abroad. There was a law in effect from 1977 stating that 2nd generation born abroad need to apply to retain their citizenship before the age of 28, having spent at least a year in Canada before that time. However, as the law was changed in 2009, it did away with the need to apply to retain citizenship for those children as long as they had not already lost it. Therefore, children who were born outside Canada in the 2nd generation between 1977 and 1981 would have lost their citizenship if they did not apply to retain it but those who had not reached the age of 28 at the time of the new law in 2009 did no longer have to apply to retain.

 

[Sideoutslam@gmail]

Dude this ever get resolved? I have the same situation