Citizenship for stepson outside of Canada

[nyhkim]

Hi experts,

I’m a Canadian citizen living/working in South Korea. I’ve recently married to a South Korean man who has a 5 year-old son from the previous marriage (his bio-mother is deceased) so the father has a full custody of the child.

What would be the steps to become Candian citizens for both the my spouse and his child? Can the child be Canadian citizen without living in Canada? (I know the spouse should get the PR first and live in Canada for 3 years to apply for Canadian citizenship)

Thanks for your help in advance!

 

[hawk39]

I think the first step would be to formally adopt your stepson.

Once that is completed, if you want him to be a Canadian citizen immediately, you can then apply for a grant of citizenship (because you asked if he can be a citizen without living in Canada, I assume you and your family intend to stay in South Korea after the citizenship process is completed) per the IRCC website, as that is your only option. Note that if you choose this route, any children your stepson would have born outside of Canada would not be eligible for citizenship by descent.

The other way would be to apply to sponsor your husband and stepson (after you have formally adopted him) under Family Sponsorship for PR when you are all ready to move to Canada. As soon as they are in Canada as PRs, because children are exempted from the residency requirement, you can then apply for your stepson's citizenship. Because he would naturalized as a Canadian citizen, any children he has born outside of Canada would inherit Canadian citizenship by descent.

I'm not an expert, so if anyone thinks I'm wrong, please feel free to correct me.

 

[Seym]

For your spouse, you know the answer already.
For the child, it depends on how you became yourself a canadian citizen and can or cannot transmit your citizenship to your children.

If you are naturalized or were born in Canada, adopting your spouse's son would make him eligible to a grant of citizenship, the same way any child you have outside Canada would be automatically canadian.
If you were born outside Canada from canadian parents yourself, you can't transmit your citizenship to your children without formally going through the PR road, and it applies to your adoptive children as well. If this is the case, once your child is granted PR, you can automatically follow the naturalization process for him, with him only needing to step foot in Canada once, the day he formally becomes a PR.