+1(514) 937-9445 or Toll-free (Canada & US) +1 (888) 947-9445

Sarzarausdil

Newbie
Oct 19, 2021
4
0
I’ve read the law, legal options, blogs, articles and do not have a clear answer of whether my daughter is a Canadian citizen. She has applied for proof of Citizenship and we are still waiting for an answer.

my mother was born in Canada. I was born in the US in 1974. My mother obtained my Canadian citizenship certificate in 1977. My daughter was born in the US in 2002.

Is she a Canadian Citizen?

Thoughts?
 
I’ve read the law, legal options, blogs, articles and do not have a clear answer of whether my daughter is a Canadian citizen. She has applied for proof of Citizenship and we are still waiting for an answer.

my mother was born in Canada. I was born in the US in 1974. My mother obtained my Canadian citizenship certificate in 1977. My daughter was born in the US in 2002.

Is she a Canadian Citizen?

Thoughts?

I think the answer is yes as long as your mother obtained your citizenship certificate after Feb 14, 1977 as part of the special grant of citizenship. But I'm going to leave this to @hawk39 to confirm one way or the other.
 
  • Like
Reactions: hawk39
I’ve read the law, legal options, blogs, articles and do not have a clear answer of whether my daughter is a Canadian citizen. She has applied for proof of Citizenship and we are still waiting for an answer.

my mother was born in Canada. I was born in the US in 1974. My mother obtained my Canadian citizenship certificate in 1977. My daughter was born in the US in 2002.

Is she a Canadian Citizen?

Thoughts?
@scylla is correct. Your daughter's application should be successful because she was born to a Canadian citizen before the 2009 Act and it's first generation limit was implemented; 3(3)(4) of that Act protects her claim to citizenship despite being born abroad as a second generation.
 
Thank you so much for the responses. I have reached out to a couple of immigration services that assist with the paperwork and filing and they have said she is not eligible because of the 2009 change. So frustrating.
 
@scylla - you mentioned the special grant of citizenship in 1977, would you mind explaining the significance? Thanks!
Basically before 1977 under the 1947 Citizenship Act, married Canadian women could not pass down citizenship by descent to her children; only men or unwed women could. In 1977, the Citizenship Act was revised, and among the changes was that any children that were ineligible for citizenship by descent because of the previous Act could now apply for a special grant of citizenship under 5(2)(b). Under this grant, you were deemed a Canadian citizen since the day you received it, and because you were an actual Canadian citizen at the time of your daughter's birth in 2002, under the 1977 Act, she was born a Canadian citizen in 2002. 3(3)(4) of the 2009 Act protects her claim to citizenship because she was born a citizen in 2002.

Had you not gotten the special grant in 1977, you would have automatically been granted citizenship by descent under the 2009 Act, and would have been deemed the first generation born abroad. Even though you would have been retroactively been deemed a citizen since the date of your birth, the first generation limit would have applied to your daughter, because you were not yet a citizen at the time of her birth in 2002.

Also as a side note, your special grant of citizenship was converted to citizenship by descent under the 2009 Act, so instead of being deemed a citizen since the day you received the grant in 1977, you are now deemed a citizen by descent since your date of birth in 1974.
 
  • Like
Reactions: armoured
I am incredibly appreciative of the time you took to write that all out. Thank you!

How did you obtain such a solid understanding of the various nuances of these Acts? Impressive!
 
How did you obtain such a solid understanding of the various nuances of these Acts?
I'm a citizen by descent myself, so I wanted to learn everything I could about it. I read the major Acts and IRCC's online operational manuals; @alphazip also helped me a lot with corrections. The one thing I didn't do is read articles and blogs from law firms or consultants; their information is vague and skewed because all they want is for you to hire and pay them with no guarantee of success. Doing your own research is often the best way to prepare. Just be sure to read everything to connect everything; cherry-picking only what people want to read is the most common mistake that causes people to find out that they don't qualify.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scylla and Naturgrl