New Bill C-3: Generational Citizenship

[reijee]

Hi

So as the new Bill C-3 was passed recently which removes “first-generation limit" for citizenship by descent. So if I am understanding this correctly this law is more so for individuals who did not receive citizenship by descent? Or is it also future proofing too?

So hypothetically if I am a Canadian citizen and if I have child outside Canada, and down the road the child has their own child (my grandchild) Will the grandchild be eligible for Canadian citizenship? Or is that still not possible?

 

[scylla]

Post to the Citizenship section.

 

[CanGoldDigger]

Hi

So as the new Bill C-3 was passed recently which removes “first-generation limit" for citizenship by descent. So if I am understanding this correctly this law is more so for individuals who did not receive citizenship by descent? Or is it also future proofing too?

So hypothetically if I am a Canadian citizen and if I have child outside Canada, and down the road the child has their own child (my grandchild) Will the grandchild be eligible for Canadian citizenship? Or is that still not possible?

Yes.

 

[canuck78]

Yes.

The answer is maybe.

 

[hawk39]

Hi

So as the new Bill C-3 was passed recently which removes “first-generation limit" for citizenship by descent. So if I am understanding this correctly this law is more so for individuals who did not receive citizenship by descent? Or is it also future proofing too?

So hypothetically if I am a Canadian citizen and if I have child outside Canada, and down the road the child has their own child (my grandchild) Will the grandchild be eligible for Canadian citizenship? Or is that still not possible?

Based on what I've pieced together from the bill and the changes it will make to the act, citizenship by descent will be retroactively given to second and subsequent generations born from after the commencement of the 1947 Act up to whatever day the bill is actually enacted. For any child born after this date, the parent will need to have had a verifiable cumulative 1095-day presence in Canada before the child's birth in order for said child to be given citizenship by descent.

So hypothetically, if you retroactively become a citizen by descent, any foreign-born children you had before the bill is enacted will also be citizens by descent. These children will then need to have been in Canada for a cumulative 1095 days before their own foreign-born children (your grandchildren) will become citizens by descent because they were born after the bill is enacted.

If you have children after the bill is enacted, but you have not been in Canada for the cumulative 1095 days before these children are born, then they will not be citizens by descent.

 

[armoured]

So hypothetically, if you retroactively become a citizen by descent, any foreign-born children you had before the bill is enacted will also be citizens by descent. These children will then need to have been in Canada for a cumulative 1095 days ...

Not that this matters much in larger scale of things, but my child is (hypothetically) a citizen by descent (due to the retroactive provisions, although I'd've met the 1095 days test anyway) and a citizen by naturalization (moved and got citizenship some time ago).

Which is in retrospect ... all the more annoying, frankly, because there are consequences we cannot easily deal with due to decisions we had to take at the time (another citizenship).

So a deeply felt and not partisan politics comment from me: **** Stephen Harper.

 

[hawk39]

Not that this matters much in larger scale of things, but my child is (hypothetically) a citizen by descent (due to the retroactive provisions, although I'd've met the 1095 days test anyway) and a citizen by naturalization (moved and got citizenship some time ago).

Your child's citizenship will probably get converted to "by descent" only, just as 3(1)(h) for those that had gotten the 1977 special grant did when the 2009 Act came into force. Legally, one cannot be a citizen by descent and by grant at the same time, as they are different methods of acquisition.

The bill has not been enacted yet, probably for details not in the bill and reasons such as your example. I believe I also read that as soon as the bill is enacted, it is going to get challenged in court by the same lawyer, this time representing foreign-born adoptees that also adopt outside of Canada. The court extended the deadline another two months, and the Senate committee brought this up as a recommendation (but not as an amendment) to the House to be discussed before Royal Assent but it was pushed through.

 

[armoured]

Your child's citizenship will probably get converted to "by descent" only, just as 3(1)(h) for those that had gotten the 1977 special grant did when the 2009 Act came into force. Legally, one cannot be a citizen by descent and by grant at the same time, as they are different methods of acquisition.

Arrrgh. I think I'd like then to ask for all fees paid prior to that (PR, citizenship grant, etc) to be refunded.

Granted that's the least expensive part of this bloody nightmare. In retrospect I should've tracked down that lawyer and participated in this suit - apart from not being female, our case had considerable overlap with the characteristics of the plaintiffs.