@pclem
Because Canadian citizenship began with the 1947 Act, your grandfather is governed by the
British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914; under this law, because he was born to a British subject father, he was also deemed a British subject at birth when he was born in Maine. However, when his parents became US citizens and lost their British subject status, your grandfather also lost his British subject status automatically. Unless he had declared that he wanted to become a British subject between the age of 21 and 22 (which it seems he did not), when Canadian citizenship began in 1947, because he was not a British subject at that time, he was not deemed a Canadian citizen at that time; and because of that, when you mother was born, she was not eligible for Canadian citizenship by descent.
Your great-grandparents and grandfather became Canadian citizens with the 2015 Act under 3(1)(k) and 3(1)(o) respectively. 3(1)(k) grants citizenship to those that were born in Canada as British subjects, but lost it before 1947; 3(1)(o) grants citizenship to foreign-born children of (k) citizens. However, the first generation, under 3(3), implies that foreign-born children are not eligible for citizenship by descent if their parent became citizens by descent, including under (o). The result of this is that the first generation limit supersedes the retroactivity granted by the legislation; that is to so that each generation beyond the first can not claim citizenship based on the retroactivity of the previous generation.
(fourth chance given? the question is does this 'automatic becoming' go back to her birth or at least my birth; if not, could my uncles who are alive be eligible?)
Your mother was never eligible, and citizenship by descent was not automatic under the 1947 Act. In order for her to have been eligible, your grandfather needed to have become a Canadian citizen in 1947, and then she would have needed to have her birth registered with the Canadian government. If she was registered and because she would have turned 24 before the 1977 Act, she would also have needed to applied for retention of Canadian citizenship. If she did not register, then she could have registered herself during the delayed registration period between 1977 to 2004. Only if she did either of these scenarios would you be eligible for citizenship today. The same would also apply to your uncles, depending on if they also needed to apply for retention.
Between 15 February 1977 and 17 April 2009, individuals born abroad to a Canadian parent automatically acquired citizenship at birth (could be me? even though she was Canadian by descent she could have been a citizen nevertheless under 'fourth chance' premise above?).
That is true, but your mother was not Canadian in 1985, so you did not get citizenship when you were born.
Under Bill C-37 and Bill C-24 which went into effect on 17 April 2009 and 11 June 2015, respectively, Canadian citizenship was restored or granted for those who have involuntarily lost their Canadian citizenship under the 1947 Act or British subject status before 1947, as well as their children. (could this have automatically given my GF unqualified/full citizenship, in which my case my uncles are eligible as first-generation, or did they miss the window?)
Your grandfather's citizenship is and always will be by descent; the 2009 and 2015 Acts implemented the generational count. So in 2015, your grandfather became a first-generation citizen by descent, and his children became the second generation born abroad and ineligible for citizenship by descent (unless they had followed the scenarios I explained earlier).
Aside from a few exceptions described under subsection 3(5), the amendments to the Citizenship Act introduced on April 17, 2009, now generally limit citizenship by descent to persons who are born to a Canadian parent abroad in the first generation. Since April 17, 2009, a person who is born outside Canada to a Canadian parent is automatically a Canadian citizen by birth only if that person is of the first generation born outside Canada. (this seems to imply the first-generation limit isn't retroactive and applies to births post-April 2009)
As
@scylla said, this is the common misconception that people think when they see that citizenship by descent is dated retroactively to the date of birth; in effect that would allow every generation to claim citizenship from the previous generation. This is exactly what the first generation limit is intended to prevent from happening. If someone wants to definitively assess their eligibility, they would need to read the legislation, figure out when section applies to their parent, which section applies to him/herself, and then cross-reference them under 3(3).
For your case, it would read like this: '
If the person is described under 3(1)(b) [you], this person is not a citizen if their parent is described under 3(1)(d) [your mother] but is also a citizen by descent'. If you want the
legislative text:
(3) Paragraphs (1)(b), (f) to (j), (q) and (r) do not apply to a person born outside Canada
(b) if, at any time, only one of the person’s parents was a citizen and that parent was a citizen under any of the following provisions, or both of the person’s parents were citizens under any of the following provisions:
(i) paragraph 4(b) or 5(b) of the Canadian Citizenship Act, S.C. 1946, c. 15,
whereas the
1947 Act states under 5(b):
if he is born outside of Canada elsewhere than on a Canadian ship, and (i) his father, or in the case of a child born out of wedlock, his mother, at the time of that person’s birth, is a Canadian citizen by reason of having been born in Canada or on a Canadian ship, or having been granted a certificate of citizenship or having been a Canadian citizen at the commencement of this Act, and (ii) the fact of his birth is registered at a consulate or with the Minister, within two years after its occurrence or within such extended period as may be authorized in special cases by the Minister, in accordance with the regulations.
Note: It is possible that a person born outside Canada to a Canadian parent on or after April 17, 2009, will be stateless because the person is not recognized as a Canadian citizen due in part to the first-generation limit (this again seems to imply that the limit does not go retroactive prior to 2009, which would seem more intuitive given that they sometimes bestow but rarely curtail rights retroactively) to citizenship by descent and in part to the person concerned not having acquired any other citizenship either by descent or by birth on soil because of other countries’ own domestic citizenship laws. In such cases, refer to subsection 5(5) of the Citizenship Act, which sets out the requirements for a grant of Canadian citizenship to stateless persons born outside Canada to a Canadian parent.
Because Canada is a signatory to a UN charter that attempts to eliminate statelessness, this would be an exception because there are countries that do not give citizenship to children via jus soli, or if their parents are not citizens of that country.
Persons born outside Canada between February 15, 1977, and April 16, 2009 (could this apply to me if my mother was considered a 'Canadian parent'? I guess that would hinge on whether the 2009 'automatic becoming,' if that applied to her, would qualify her as 'Canadian' in 1985; I'd argue it would, since if someone is something by descent, then they've been it for their entire lives)
During that period, a person born outside Canada to a Canadian parent was automatically a Canadian citizen regardless of whether they were born outside Canada after the first generation. (seems also to negate the first generation requirement, at least inside this time window, which I am as 1985 birth)
It would if your mother was considered a Canadian parent when you were born, but she was not. The chain ended when your grandfather lost his British subject status because his parents became US citizens. Despite gaining his citizenship with the 2015 Act to the date of his birth granted from the retroactivity, the first generation limit prevents your mother from claiming retroactive citizenship.
