declaring other citizenships on citizenship application

[tyl92]

hello guys i have a friend who is applying for canadian citizenship , does he have to declare all the citizenships he has on the form ?
of course i think he has to declare obviously ,the one he applied with , for his pr status ?
thanks a lot

 

[links18]

Yes, you have to declare all of them and they should have been declared on PR application also, if he/she had them at the time.

 

[Rigly68]

hello guys i have a friend who is applying for canadian citizenship , does he have to declare all the citizenships he has on the form ?
of course i think he has to declare obviously ,the one he applied with , for his pr status ?
thanks a lot

He has to declare ALL countries he either has citizenship with or permanent resident status like green card....

 

[tyl92]

He told me he thought he just had to declare the one he applied with on his pr application.
He currently has 2 .on his pr application he just specified one

 

[Natan]

He told me he thought he just had to declare the one he applied with on his pr application.
He currently has 2 .on his pr application he just specified one

All current citizenships must be declared.

FYI, if one of those citizenships is U.S., a failure to declare it is grounds for revocation of U.S. citizenship; as failure to declare U.S. citizenship, when asked, in the commission of a potentially expatriating act (e.g., voluntarily acquiring foreign citizenship) may be construed as evidence of an intention to relinquish U.S. citizenship.

 

[dpenabill]

I am posting here mostly to make a reminder:

When in doubt, follow the instructions; otherwise, yep, follow the instructions.

The query posed here suggests someone is considering otherwise. My sense is that a forum like this should not hesitate to remind prospective applicants how important it is to follow the instructions.

hello guys i have a friend who is applying for canadian citizenship , does he have to declare all the citizenships he has on the form ?
of course i think he has to declare obviously ,the one he applied with , for his pr status ?
thanks a lot

He told me he thought he just had to declare the one he applied with on his pr application.
He currently has 2 .on his pr application he just specified one

I concur in previous responses, that ALL countries in which the applicant has citizenship must be disclosed in the application for Canadian citizenship, and ALL countries in which the applicant has permanent resident status, or the equivalent, must likewise be disclosed.

There is no doubt about this whatsoever.

What confuses and concerns me is the query itself. Not every element of the citizenship application is easily understood, but relative to this, the application form is very straight-forward and not susceptible to any other interpretation. There should be no doubt, no question: applicants are required to disclose all countries in which they have citizenship, and all countries in which they have the equivalent of status to permanently reside.

Item 6.C. in the current application form, consistent with every version of the application form there has been for many years now, asks:

"Are you a citizen of any other country(ies)?"

Only a stateless person can check the "no" box without making a material misrepresentation. All who check "yes" (everyone who is not stateless) is then instructed:

"If yes, list the country(ies)."

Again, there is no way this can be interpreted other than requiring the applicant to disclose ALL countries for which the applicant is a citizen. A failure to do so would be an overt misrepresentation. That, in-itself, could be grounds to deny the application. That, in-itself could be grounds for revoking citizenship forever.

Item 6.F. is similar, regarding permanent resident status, or its equivalence, in any other country, and the box for this item actually has multiple lines to enter such disclosures for multiple countries (there are multiple lines for this item because the instruction requires the applicant to also declare the date of acquiring such status, whereas regarding citizenship in other countries, all the applicant has to do is list all countries in which the applicant has citizenship).


Thus . . .

Where does the question come from? Why is this question being asked?

I am not challenging the OP, tyl92, here . . . . even though, obviously, tyl92 could have just glanced at the application form and answered the question without posing it here. A forum like this should encourage everyone to post any questions they have, even if the answer should be obvious.

I do not doubt there is a "friend" who raised this question.

But I will say that the question itself has implications. No need to speculate beyond acknowledging the question itself appears to be about whether or not someone can get away with not fully answering the questions in the citizenship application. I do not know why. Does not matter why. It would be utterly foolish to go down that road . . . even though, sure, in many ways others have successfully gone down that road. Anyone following much at all about such things should readily recognize that more get away with this, or that, than than the number who get caught. Still a bad bet. Still not the way to go. And, the odds of success are diminishing every year.

Thus, as I often say: when in doubt, follow the instructions; otherwise, yep, follow the instructions. And best to not even think of what the chances are of getting away with not following the instructions.

 

[links18]

While the instructions are clear, I can certainly see why there might be grounds for confusion. IRCC only seems to actually regard you as a citizen of one country--even if you already have multiple citizenships. I have yet to see a PR card that identifies someone having more than one nationality. Does such a thing even exist? Therefore, I can see how someone might conclude that for IRCC purposes they only have one citizenship and only need to declare that one on their Canadian citizenship application. That is not the case, but I can see where people might get mixed up.

 

[links18]

All current citizenships must be declared.

FYI, if one of those citizenships is U.S., a failure to declare it is grounds for revocation of U.S. citizenship; as failure to declare U.S. citizenship, when asked, in the commission of a potentially expatriating act (e.g., voluntarily acquiring foreign citizenship) may be construed as evidence of an intention to relinquish U.S. citizenship.

Don't overthink this. You won't get your US citizenship yanked for failing to tell some other country you are a US citizen. You have to intend to relinquish US citizenship in the course of committing the expatriating act and simply concealing your US citizenship to a foreign government hardly seems like evidence of an intent to relinquish. In fact, it might be construed as evidence of an attempt to keep it.

 

[Natan]

Don't overthink this. You won't get your US citizenship yanked for failing to tell some other country you are a US citizen. You have to intend to relinquish US citizenship in the course of committing the expatriating act and simply concealing your US citizenship to a foreign government hardly seems like evidence of an intent to relinquish. In fact, it might be construed as evidence of an attempt to keep it.

Don't underthink this! Should the U.S. Department of State assert that an American became a citizen of Canada with the intention of relinquishing U.S. citizenship, U.S. courts would very likely find the omission of U.S. citizenship on the Canadian citizenship application a damning proof of intent to relinquish.

The legal test is determined by what a reasonable American would do. A reasonable American would declare that they were citizens of The United States of America. They would especially make this declaration if they were committing a potentially expatriating act and wanted to maintain U.S. citizenship. Failure to disclose this fact would very likely be seen by the U.S. Department of State and U.S. courts as evidence of intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship upon acquisition of Canadian citizenship.

Omitting U.S. citizenship on any signed form is not the behaviour of a reasonable American citizen, and certainly not the behaviour of a reasonable American citizen who intends to maintain U.S. citizenship.

 

[dpenabill]

Let's be frank. There is a reason for not disclosing all countries one has citizenship in.

The issue of undisclosed citizenship arises in a surprising number of Federal Court cases.

Or, conversely, the point is that there is a reason IRCC requires the applicant to disclose all countries in which the applicant has citizenship: because IRCC wants to be sure, as sure as IRCC can be, that it has an opportunity to examine all possible Travel Documents the applicant may have used.

IRCC wants to be sure all Travel Documents are tied to the individual's Canadian immigration client number.

In the meantime, more than a few have been caught coming and going, with a lot of time gone, using alternative, undisclosed Travel Documents. That is, caught committing residency fraud.

In contrast, the prospect of the U.S. even attempting to deem a U.S. citizen to have relinquished his or her citizenship by failing to disclose U.S. citizenship in an application for Canadian citizenship is indeed extremely remote. Moreover, current U.S. law regarding this essentially requires an overt, affirmative act evidencing intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship, meaning something more than an inference of relinquishing U.S. citizenship (more than merely not disclosing it in a Canadian citizenship application). Moreover, so far U.S. policy continues to actually do what it can to make it rather difficult to lose U.S. citizenship (other than that obtained by fraud). The U.S. prefers to retain dominion. (The fee to even apply to relinquish U.S. citizenship is very high.)

But if the applicant for Canadian citizenship has U.S. citizenship and does not disclose it, Canada is not likely to be lenient or forgiving. And even if the individual slips through without being discovered, gets citizenship, there is a real risk of citizenship being taken away anytime for a long, long time, if and when the fraud is discovered.

But the real issue lurking behind the curtain in this query, undisclosed citizenship, is the possibility of travel using a Travel Document without the border crossing events being recorded relative to the applicant's Canadian immigration client number. This is something CIC and now IRCC watch for. It is a big deal. If IRCC perceives any suspicion the applicant has some other country's status which could mean the applicant potentially traveling on undisclosed Travel Documents, that's the kind of case that tends to take a very, very long time and can involve a lot of negative inferences against the applicant.

 

[tyl92]

Thanks for the answers
Will he have to provide photocopies of that passport as well ? Or just the one mentioned on his pr, before making a judgement that passport was never used or whatsoever he just had it since his father is a citizen of that country ..
I agree that the question is 100% clear but it specific cases it can lead to confusion

 

[keesio]

Don't underthink this! Should the U.S. Department of State assert that an American became a citizen of Canada with the intention of relinquishing U.S. citizenship, U.S. courts would very likely find the omission of U.S. citizenship on the Canadian citizenship application a damning proof of intent to relinquish.

I tend to agree with Natan here. IF the US somehow found out that you applied for another citizenship without disclosing US citizenship, it can be grounds for revocation. The US always considers you as a US citizen and expects you to identify yourself as one.

 

[keesio]

I am posting here mostly to make a reminder:

When in doubt, follow the instructions; otherwise, yep, follow the instructions.

The query posed here suggests someone is considering otherwise. My sense is that a forum like this should not hesitate to remind prospective applicants how important it is to follow the instructions.

Yes, indeed. The current government seems to be dealing with anything considered misrepresentation very seriously:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/citizenship-revocation-trudeau-harper-1.3795733

 

[tyl92]

He will mention it on his citizenship app , there was no initial attempt to kind of hide or whatever you may think he'd have done , since he always identified himself here with his uk passport lived all his life there immigrated as British he was wondering how relevant it'd be to say he's citizen of his father's country of birth on that application
Of course according to the form they just want to know all the citizenships you have , the question is would he have to provide photocopies of the British passport only ( the one. He always used ) or both ?

 

[links18]

The US State Department has already said that those US citizens naturalizing in a foreign state and taking a routine oath are deemed to have not intended to renounce US citizenship. They aren't going to care how you identified yourself to a foreign government. When was the last time someone involuntarily lost their US citizenship after such an event? A US citizen who also hold other citizenships will routinely identify himself to other governments with the other citizenships. Now, if a US citizen were to identify himself to US authorities as a foreign citizen then that might be an issue, but still the US typically does not aggressively seek to expatriate its citizens.

But Dpenabill is right, not telling Canada about all your citizenships on your citizenship application is a big deal if it is found out. Of course, there are times when someone might have another citizenship and not realize it at the time they apply for Canadian citizenship, like possibly Minister Monsef?