Waking up Canadian..

[wowswift 3]

saw it on yahoo news, i guess its a new law that made hundreds of thousands of people Canadian citizens.

The Canadian government doesn't know the precise number or location of individuals affected by the legislation. But it believes most are U.S. citizens, a spokeswoman for Canada's immigration office said. U.S. Department of Homeland Security records show 240,000 Canadians were naturalized in the U.S. from 1948 to 1977; the new law fixes problems that occurred during those years.

To reach that amorphous group of beneficiaries, the Canadian government has turned to YouTube. It's running an ad there titled "Waking up Canadian," in which a man awakens on April 17 to a room festooned with red-and-white Canadian flags. He's met by a welcoming committee consisting of two stuffed plush moose, a hockey player, and a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Eligible individuals automatically become Canadian citizens. But they don't get proof of that citizenship unless they apply for it, meaning other countries -- including those that allow people to be citizens of only one nation -- won't be alerted, according to the immigration office spokeswoman. Those people also may renounce their citizenship rights, she said.

"Thanks to a new law, Canada will bestow citizenship Friday on what its government believes could be hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting foreigners, most of them Americans.

The April 17 amendment to Canada's Citizenship Act automatically restores Canadian nationality to many people forced to renounce it when they became citizens of another country. It also grants citizenship to their children.

The citizenship bonanza is the byproduct of a decadeslong struggle by a motley group of people who claim they were unfairly denied or lost their Canadian nationality. Canadian families who crossed the border in 1947 to 1977 to have their babies in a U.S. hospital found those children weren't recognized as Canadians unless the families registered them with the government. Some foreign brides of Canadian World War II servicemen lost their citizenship if they stayed out of the country for a decade or more.

Then there are the Canadian Mennonites who moved to Mexico in the 1920s to the 1960s. When their children and grandchildren returned to Canada, many found their nationality unclear.

Some such cases languished in litigation for years. Others surfaced in 2007, when new U.S. rules requiring passports for travel between Canada and the U.S. uncovered significant numbers of people who thought they were Canadian, but weren't. The old rules were "quite intricate," said Bill Janzen, an immigration lobbyist in Ottawa for the Mennonite Central Committee of Canada.

The new law offers citizenship to many individuals now in limbo. It also stops the previous practice of granting citizenship in perpetuity to children of Canadians born abroad, limiting eligibility to children of parents born in Canada."

(source http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1239931833...l?mod=yhoofront )

CIC's link http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules.asp

[ashenflowers 5]

wow... what a crazy story... but one of the parts that struck me most, is this::

It also stops the previous practice of granting citizenship in perpetuity to children of Canadians born abroad, limiting eligibility to children of parents born in Canada."

That totally washes a big wave of questions for me!!! Now it sounds like my future children will not be Canadian citizens when they are born, even though my future husband and I are both Canadian citizens and I was born in Canada. My fiance was actually born in Holland, though he does not have Dutch citizenship... It's not really something I've put much thought into before, but I'd really love if my children could be Canadians (which is funny, as I'm moving to the US.. sigh.. oh well).

How does everyone else feel about this? I'm still a bit confused... lol!

btw.... that video was HILARIOUS... hahaha

Edited April 18, 2009 by ashenflowers

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Actually, your children would still have Canadian citizenship claims as you were born in Canada. The new legislations means that if your children were born outside of Canada and had children born outside of Canada, their children would not have claims to Canadian citizenship. So - your grandchildren may not be Canadians but your children will be.

[wowswift 3]

lol yeah its pretty confusing, the page is sorta vague. i gotta read it again when im "more" up for it lolz.

but yes, i rly just posted it because of the video lolool

[ashenflowers 5]

Actually, your children would still have Canadian citizenship claims as you were born in Canada. The new legislations means that if your children were born outside of Canada and had children born outside of Canada, their children would not have claims to Canadian citizenship. So - your grandchildren may not be Canadians but your children will be.

aahhh.. thanks for the clarification

[trailmix 77]

There was a VJ member who was following this legislation - I can't remember his name right now, hope he is still tracking it!

[BermyCat 1]

Wow, I'm lucky that Mom returned to Halifax to have me. She was having problems with her pregancy and wanted to be with her mom and sister for the later part of her pregnancy and my birth. If she hadn't, my kids wouldn't have been Canadian and I would have been heartbroken over that.

~ Catherine

[Hugglebuggles 60]

This reminds me of a story I was watching on CBC a while back. It was an elderly man who had served for Canadian forces in World War II and is one of a small pool of war survivors around today. Some time in the 1970's me moved to the US, for whatever reason, and eventually became an American citizen and was forced to denounce his Canadian citizenship. He was petitioning the government to have his Canadian citizenship restored at the age of 90 something. They made it seem like he was having problems getting anyone to take his requests seriously... So, looks like the man got his wish! Canada really is the most cosmopolitan country in the world.

[SomberCat 0]

This reminds me of a story I was watching on CBC a while back. It was an elderly man who had served for Canadian forces in World War II and is one of a small pool of war survivors around today. Some time in the 1970's me moved to the US, for whatever reason, and eventually became an American citizen and was forced to denounce his Canadian citizenship. He was petitioning the government to have his Canadian citizenship restored at the age of 90 something. They made it seem like he was having problems getting anyone to take his requests seriously... So, looks like the man got his wish! Canada really is the most cosmopolitan country in the world.

This isn't completely related to the subject, but I have to ask. What's in the styrofoam bowl/cup thing? It's at the 20 second interval of the video sitting on his alarm next to the syrup and it also appears later in the video as he's holding it. I can't figure out what it's supposed to be and I'm on the computer with my husband right now (he's the Canadian) and he can't figure it out either.

[Krikit 1,165]

It's poutine!

[SomberCat 0]

It's poutine!

It is? That was my initial guess, but in the shot where it's sitting on the alarm clock, my husband noted that there is something brown that appears to be hanging over the edge. We figured if it was gravy it would look more like it was running down the side instead of hanging over it. That's a big darn bowl of poutine... sounds good right now.

[ashenflowers 5]

lol Yep! Poutine! Sometimes I brag a bit to my SO when I'm able to have some... lol he misses poutine a lot so I make sure that we get some when he's in Canada visiting

[scandal 951]

Actually, your children would still have Canadian citizenship claims as you were born in Canada. The new legislations means that if your children were born outside of Canada and had children born outside of Canada, their children would not have claims to Canadian citizenship. So - your grandchildren may not be Canadians but your children will be.

That's not quite true either.

What the legislation actually says on the matter is (loosely): if your children were born outside Canada and had children born outside Canada, then they must apply before their 28th birthday to retain their Canadian citizenship. "Retention" involves some paperwork, but also requires a minimum of 1 year residence within Canada before the 28th birthday.

It's a little bit more complicated since it also involves the years in which the various generations of Canadians born abroad were born.

I know, because this is going to affect my daughter. She's 11 now, so she still has 17 years to deal with this. I am Canadian from birth, but born in the US. My 2 sons were born in Canada, so no issue with them. But my daughter was born in Brazil - this is going to affect her.

You can read more at http://www.cic.gc.ca/English/pdf/pub/retention.pdf

[shiri 0]

I have a question based on this... my son's father is a Canadian citizen and I am a US citizen... so he is automatically both right? I am not quite sure what I need to do to declare his Canadian citizenship... but if he never lives in Canada and has children, does this mean that they will be part Canadian also... or is the dual citizenship only until they are 18 and they have to declare a citizenship? Do you know? We want to get the papers done so he can have both a Canadian passport and he already has and uses his American one. Because we don't have the official papers done for his Canadian citizenship, when I have flown with him to Canada twice, I said he was an American citizen.

[scandal 951]

I have a question based on this... my son's father is a Canadian citizen and I am a US citizen... so he is automatically both right? I am not quite sure what I need to do to declare his Canadian citizenship... but if he never lives in Canada and has children, does this mean that they will be part Canadian also... or is the dual citizenship only until they are 18 and they have to declare a citizenship? Do you know? We want to get the papers done so he can have both a Canadian passport and he already has and uses his American one. Because we don't have the official papers done for his Canadian citizenship, when I have flown with him to Canada twice, I said he was an American citizen.

We'd need a little bit more information to give you a precise answer.

Your son (who is a real cutie!! Congratulations!!) is most probably both.

Where was he born? In the US, Canada, or other?

I'm assuming he was born in the US.

If so, he is certainly 100% US citizen. If he was born outside of the US, it will depend upon your past US residence history.

Now regarding Canadian citizenship, where was your husband born? In Canada? If so, again your son should have Canadian citizenship from birth, and should be able to retain it for life. I believe that you will need to register him with the nearest Canadian consulate to where you live to establish this. If your husband was not born in Canada, then most likely the age-28 (not 18) rule will apply to your son. See my post above, and in particular follow the link I provided to the CIC document explaining this.