Mother born in Quebec but if she wasn't a Cdn citizen when she had me then ...?

[Maggie65]

Thank you again. Much appreciated. You have said twice I would apply for my mother's proof of citizenship. I had thought I would have been applying for proof that I am a citizen by virtue of her. Do I have this backwards?

Thanks again.

 

[scylla]

Thank you again. Much appreciated. You have said twice I would apply for my mother's proof of citizenship. I had thought I would have been applying for proof that I am a citizen by virtue of her. Do I have this backwards?

Thanks again.

If you have your mother's birth certificate - then you can absolutely skip this step and just apply to confirm your own citizenship. This is probably the fastest way to get it done. Yes - it will take time - but you'll get an answer one way or the other.

I don't see the harm in applying and seeing what happens. I think being selected as an immigrant will be difficult for you. So I'd absolutely give the citizenship a try.

 

[Maggie65]

Thanks again. You are very kind and patient. Have a great day.

 

[alphazip]

Sorry, not to belabor the point, but the citizenship application itself says that I need to provide proof that my mother was a Canadian citizen at the time of my birth. I don't see how I can do that. In fact yesterday I confirmed via email with the US office of naturalization - where my mother's signed 1963 US naturalization certificate is held - I was born in '65 - that all US citizens were required to renounce any/all former citizenship.

I spoke with a certain law firm about this and they seemed to feel that I should apply anyway, and that the renunciation was "just a formality", and somehow "wot count". Mind you, this firm seemed very unprofessional, and wanted huge bucks up front from me. I suspect they were just telling me what I wanted to hear in order to gain my business.

Can anyone tell me what they think? How does one prove that one's mother was a Canadian citizen at the time of their birth when the US naturalization people are saying as of yesterday that she would have been required to renounced her Cdn citizenship? What in the 2009 law says otherwise?

Thank you very much. Really - the people on here have been amazing in offering help.

The renunciation that every person makes when becoming a U.S. citizen (I renounce foreign potentates, etc.) is NOT the kind of renunciation that Canada is talking about. Only if your mother renounced her Canadian citizenship to Canadian officials (which hardly anyone did, except for people like Conrad Black or Ted Cruz, who did so for political reasons) would you not have inherited Canadian citizenship.

As of 2009, your mother got her citizenship back, retroactive to the day she lost it. (The fact that she may have been deceased doesn't alter that fact.) Therefore, if you are in the 1st generation born abroad, you are considered to have been born to a person who was a Canadian citizen when you were born.

I sent you the link to the video regarding the 2009 law. The people who "woke up Canadian" are mainly the thousands of people, mostly American, who were born to Canadian-born parents.

You are overthinking this, and don't seem to want to take "yes" (from the law firm, the online citizenship tool, and me) for an answer! Just fill out the application (answering the questions accurately, including the date your mother became a U.S. citizen), include your mother's birth certificate* and yours (full certificate containing parents' names), and send it in. In return, you will receive a Citizenship Certificate.

*"For Canadians born in the province of Quebec, only a birth certificate or a copy of an act of birth issued after January 1, 1994, by the Directeur de l'état civil of Quebec...[is] accepted."

 

[alphazip]

There was a period of time where you had to renounce your original citizenship to obtain US citizenship. I don't know the dates.

That period extends to the present day. Anyone who becomes a U.S. citizen declares:

"I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen."

However, as of 2009, Canada doesn't care if a person in the past (before Canada began allowing dual citizenship in 1977) lost their Canadian citizenship. The 2009 law returned Canadian citizenship to virtually everyone who lost it AND gave it to their children in the first generation.

The exception is if a person formally renounced their citizenship to Canadian authorities. There was certainly no requirement that this be done, and the numbers who did so are miniscule. So, in almost ever case, if a person says a parent was born in Canada and asks if they are now Canadian, the answer is yes.

 

[Naheulbeuck]

But no matter what, like you have mentioned many times, the best option is to just apply, the chances of obtaining citizenship this way are high and the cost to try it are minimal...

 

[Maggie65]

The renunciation that every person makes when becoming a U.S. citizen (I renounce foreign potentates, etc.) is NOT the kind of renunciation that Canada is talking about. Only if your mother renounced her Canadian citizenship to Canadian officials (which hardly anyone did, except for people like Conrad Black or Ted Cruz, who did so for political reasons) would you not have inherited Canadian citizenship.

As of 2009, your mother got her citizenship back, retroactive to the day she lost it. (The fact that she may have been deceased doesn't alter that fact.) Therefore, if you are in the 1st generation born abroad, you are considered to have been born to a person who was a Canadian citizen when you were born.

I sent you the link to the video regarding the 2009 law. The people who "woke up Canadian" are mainly the thousands of people, mostly American, who were born to Canadian-born parents.

You are overthinking this, and don't seem to want to take "yes" (from the law firm, the online citizenship tool, and me) for an answer! Just fill out the application (answering the questions accurately, including the date your mother became a U.S. citizen), include your mother's birth certificate* and yours (full certificate containing parents' names), and send it in. In return, you will receive a Citizenship Certificate.

*"For Canadians born in the province of Quebec, only a birth certificate or a copy of an act of birth issued after January 1, 1994, by the Directeur de l'état civil of Quebec...[is] accepted."

WOW alphazip! You are my hero - along with the many people here who have responded to my annoying questions! Thank you all! I have renewed hope about this whole thing! I will certainly proceed with formally applying for proof of my own (hopefully!) citizenship, and will try somehow to forget about it for the next 5 months until the verdict comes down. My birthday is in April, so perhaps there will be a nice bday present awaiting me next year, on my 52nd (ouch!) Mind you, I really can't make a move for about 4-5 years until my house is paid off, but I'd like to get this issue settled now.

In case anyone was wondering, my reasons for wanting to move back to Canada (I lived there for a year as a young child - on lovely tree-lined O'Bryan Ave in Montreal - in a gorgeous post WWII brick cape that my mum paid $22k for - just found the paperwork) are due mainly to our insane health insurance situation here in the States, and due to the cost of "Medicare" once I turn 65. You would think the one time this country offers you national health insurance it would maybe be "free" - free of monthly premiums, copays, annual deductibles, free of the 20% portion that Medicare doesn't cover, free of doctors who won't accept Medicare ... but no! If I remain unmarried, even though I have worked all of my life from the age of 15 with little to no interruption, I will have such a tiny "social security" check each month (depending on when I retire and what I earn until then, maybe $1100 - $1300/month) that the notion of having the monthly Medicare charge deducted right out of that tiny check each month means I will be one of those elders eating dog food. I have no other pension. Not a joke and not too funny to contemplate.

My best friend of 20+ years has lived in and around the Toronto area all of her life and I've visited there regularly all these years - will be there in a few weeks, in fact - plus I have tons of family in Montreal (mainly) and Quebec City. This all combined with the ongoing Trump horrorshow down here, the endless gun violence and mass shootings, the pending collapse of Obamacare with it's skyrocketing premiums, etc., the fact that I pay the same in annual property tax for my dumpy 2 bedroom 1 bath house here in the Maine than my friend does for her much larger house in a very good area of Pickering, has just all made me quite disgusted and ill at ease to say the least. But mainly it's the health insurance. I'm very healthy and fit, but like anyone, I will need more doctors' care as I get older, not less, and I will have much less money once I retire, if I'm ever able to, so, much as I already love and admire Canada, this is very much a financial survival consideration. Yes, I know there are issues with the Cdn healthcare system - we hear about them all the time down here - just as there are with every system, but I'm willing to take that risk ... if they will allow me entry. Wish me luck!

Thank you again so much! You are all such lovely people.