Doh, I'm the second generation outside of Canada.

[pete2770]

Hi everyone,

I'm a little depressed, and it's because I realize I can't become a citizen as I once thought. I'm almost certain the wording and knowledge on the main government pages for Canadian citizenship information changed from the time the process started with my father. (Note, I'm not saying the wording of the citizenship law in 2009 changed, just that the big text of THIS IS FOR ONE GENERATION OUT only wasn't there and obvious/posted in everything -- as it is now.)

So I got my hopes up. My father's fine though and has his citizenship, his father was Canadian born and bred, 1923 -- amazingly, my grandfather died in 2003 and we still had all of his information including the documents he received in 1947 in a filing cabinet -- which made my father's process very quick, I think it took him six months total from when he applied to receiving his citizenship card.

Anyways, I was very excited in helping him sort everything out -- kind of a father son deal, and it was great fun (I'm not a minor, mid 20's now FYI ). We've great respect for Canada as we live in a border town -- so it's constant back and fourth for food/sports/cross-border organizations; it's a small community here.

Imagine my surprise when we received his card and they explicitly sent out a letter stating "This stops with you, your children are NOT citizens."

I was taken aback, and quickly hopped online and went to the website -- what did I see in all caps -- THIS IS FOR ONE GENERATION ONLY. I swear to you, that wasn't there before, I'm not mad, just sad. I'm sure if I wasn't so gungho about helping my dad out, I wouldn't have been so naive to not check it out for myself.

My little sad rant stops there, now I'm wondering what my options are.

It just seems so hard, to put it bluntly, to get a permanent residence across the border and keep my job working in the US. Main reason -- tourist area -- I can't wait two hours at the border before work in the morning.

Though I would love to live in and experience more of Canada, and to be honest, my taxes would be about the same, so that's not the issue. It's literally the busy border that will prevent me from doing this.

Are there other options for me? Are there loopholes in the one generation out only deal?

Just an FYI -- I wouldn't stand to gain anything from Canadian citizenship outside of pride. I work, so I'm not a burden. My work provides me with health insurance, so I'm not looking to exploit anything.

I ultimately just want to live in Canada some day. It's a great country, but I do also love the US. As I said before, where I'm at, the US and Canadian sides share a lot with each other and have fun rivalries -- participating in each other's parades and what have you. If my memory serves me correct a small town by me had a library that was split down the border and a shared road, maybe that was somewhere else. But it models how closely both sides work together here.

If I take the standard route and don't obtain citizenship through birth right, would I be forced to renounce my US citizenship?

Thank you all for listening to my little sob story. Take care.

 

[scylla]

I can only answer one of your questions...

No - you would not have to renounce US citizenship. You could be a dual citizen.

 

[lasbagman]

Pete
Do not get discouraged, check out the website Lost Canadians.org and Lost Canadians.com. Don Chapman is the leader of the Lost Canadians movement and because citizenship ends at first genertation, This has caused problems in other countries for 2nd Generation people like yourself. Infants have been born since Bill c37 has passed and children are stateless. I would suggest that you look in to the two sites I suggested and Join.
My wife and I are first Generation born in the USA and we have to sponsor our minor daughter to move to Canada.

 

[pete2770]

Thanks Lash, I'll check the links out sometime towards the end of the weekend. A lot going on with work atm.

Thanks again.

Edit: I see now why I was so confused...I'm sure when i was going through this a lot of the information was the old information -- to quote wikipedia:

"Every such person whose Canadian parent or parents were also not born in Canada and obtained their citizenship at birth by descent (i.e. second generation born abroad) must have successfully applied to maintain their Canadian citizenship before their 28th birthday, that is, if their 28th birthday took place before 17 April 2009. People falling into that category who did not take steps to maintain their citizenship lost their citizenship on that birthday. With Bill C-37[4] coming into effect on 17 April 2009, there is no longer a requirement nor any allowance to apply to maintain citizenship."

So while this law helped many people, it also stopped my hopes dead in their tracks. Now I understand why I thought everything was going to be perfect. Because everything was telling me, at that time, that I had until I was 28. Little did I know this law put a new deadline in and erased all possibility for the second generation.

Damn.

 

[canvis2006]

well, I believe it is to prevent the abuse, and the blind "handing down" of citizenship through multiple generations OUTSIDE the country.

Send a thank you note to the conservative govt....lol

 

[links18]

Is there not a smaller border crossing you go go to w/o the 2 hour wait?
Where do you live? Land border or water border? I don't think I have ever had a wait at the border longer than a half hour and that is because it was late at night and CBSA only had one booth open.

 

[Leon]

The border can't be that busy everywhere. Would it help if you had a Nexus card? There are some towns that are split by the border, see http://www.uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=91878.0 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-border_town_naming#Canada_.2F_The_United_States_of_America for some info.

I suppose the rule of retaining citizenship by 28 etc. does not apply to you because your father was not a Canadian citizen when you were born. He is one of the lost Canadians who has been given his citizenship back because of the new law but that does not apply to his children. Just the way it is.

If your father wanted to move to Canada, he could go to Saskatchewan or Manitoba and after a year there, apply to sponsor you for PR through the provincial nominee program. If he's not up for that, I guess you'll have to try to apply by yourself.