Is my Father In Law already a citizen given his circumstances??

[nicolapeeling]

Hi all if you know the answer to this your help would relly be appreciated!! 

I have just sponsored my husband and we are moving to Toronto on Monday !!!  We wanted to look into sponsoring my husbands parents, although we know that this is possible, we have also been told that this could take up to 4 years!  My father-in-law always knew that his Mother had lived in Canada, but it has today come to light that she held a Canadian passport, which suggests that she was a Canadian citizen herself.  With this in mind do you know if this gives Tom (father-in-law) automatic citizen rights himself?  As if this is the case we will apply for his Canadian passport, what do you think??

[jayde]

I "think" she would have to have been a citizen when your father in law was born.

any timeline available?

[lizpeeling]

I "think" she would have to have been a citizen when your father in law was born.

any timeline available?

I think she would have retained her citizenship wouldnt she?!?  My timeline has been 6 months 22 days from start to finish.

[jayde]

No, what I meant was... if she was a citizen 'before' he was born, then there is a chance he is too (I think).  but if she gained her citizenship AFTER he was born, then he may not be.  That's what i meant by timeline.  Do you know when she held the passport?

I am sure there are others who can help better than I can.  I was just hoping for more information for those who know more about this type of thing.

[jayde]

Here is some info I found that may help. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_nationality_law

You will have to do some digging, find dates and other information.  Your father-in-law may have to go through a different process and his citizenship may not be resolved at the moment.  I'd do a bit of investigating in the family and see what you can find out.

Good luck

[scylla]

Try using the CIC's citizenship test which checks to see if someone is a citizen based on answering a series of questions:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules/index.asp

It's very easy and quick to use.

[AmericaninQuebec]

From http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/publications/citizenship.asp

"In general, you are a Canadian citizen if you were born outside Canada and one of your parents was a Canadian citizen at the time of your birth because the parent was either born in Canada or naturalized in Canada (i.e., the parent was a permanent resident [a landed immigrant] before becoming a citizen). You are the first generation born outside Canada. For more information, please see the “First generation limit to citizenship by descent” section.
You may be a Canadian citizen if you were born outside Canada between January 1, 1947, and April 16, 2009 inclusively, to a Canadian parent who was also born outside Canada to a Canadian parent (you are the second or subsequent generation born outside Canada). If you think this may apply to you and you need more information, please contact us (see the “Contact Information” section at the end of this publication)."

Since only Canadian citizens can hold a passport, it seems nearly impossible that your husband's grandmother was not a Canadian citizen. Normally you need to formally renounce a citizenship to lose it, so even if she obtained another citizenship later she probably was still Canadian. It appears that this would make his grandfather a Canadian as well. Also, I am assuming your husband was born between 1947 and 2009, it may even make him a citizen. I would strongly recommend contacting CIC immediately about how to determine this, and to find out what procedure is in placing for claiming Canadian citizenship. Looks like you might get lucky and not have to worry about sponsoring your hubby!

[lucky rain]

This was case with my husband. Canada changed law in April 2009. By that law they gave back citizenship to everyone who ever had it even if they gave up on it. maybe you should search by campaign name "wake up Canadian ". So basically If your husbands grandmother was Canadian before she gave birth to your father in law, he is a Canadian citizen even if he was not born in Canada. But your husband who I assume is second generation born outside is not. They limit Canadian citizenship only to first generation born outside Canada. My case was: My father in law got his Canadian citizenship and he returned back home for a visit. Long story short he never returned back to Canada. By this new law My husband and all of his siblings got Canadian citizenship and now he has to apply for me and our kids because we have to go thru immigration process. Only thing that we had to do was just apply for my father in law`s and my husband`c citizenship certificate. . So if you are sure that your grandma was Canadian you should find some evidence about it, or just do search of records , and just apply for hers (if she is still alive) and your father in law`s citizenship certificates. There is even an option for your father`s applying for that even if she is not alive. Research cic web site and call them.

[AmericaninQuebec]

So basically If your husbands grandmother was Canadian before she gave birth to your father in law, he is a Canadian citizen even if he was not born in Canada. But your husband who I assume is second generation born outside is not. They limit Canadian citizenship only to first generation born outside Canada.

I haven't gone through this myself, but I disagree with this statement due to the fact that the CIC website says the exact opposite (the language of which is in my post above). While now they do currently limit citizenship to the first generation born outside of Canada, there appears to be a special exception for 2nd generation children born between the years of 1947 and 2009. Obviously there may be exceptions, but based on the information provided by CIC I would think if you can prove your father-in-law's citizenship then you would then be able to go ahead and claim citizenship for your husband as well. Definitely get in touch with CIC though and see what they say.

[lucky rain]

yes you are right there is exception for those born between `47 and `09 but only if their birth was registered by Canadian government by their 28-th birthday  . you can find out more here:  http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules/index.asp