Can Canadian citizenship by descent flow through adopted ancestor (adoption in 1920)?

[CanadianDriftwood]

I’m trying to determine whether I may have any claim to Canadian citizenship by descent under current law changes, but my family situation involves adoption and a very old timeline, so I’m hoping someone knowledgeable can weigh in.

Here is the family chain:

• My great-grandmother was born in Canada (I am still confirming exact date/place of birth).
• At some point, she moved from Canada to the United States. I do not yet know what year.
• In 1920, while living in the United States, she legally adopted my grandmother. My grandmother (born in US in 1919) was not her biological child.
• My grandmother never held Canadian citizenship papers or a Canadian passport, as far as my family knows.
• My mother was born in the United States in 1947.
• I was born in the United States in 1985.

So the chain is:

Canadian-born great-grandmother
↓
Adopted grandmother (adopted in US in 1920, non-biological child, born in US in 1919)
↓
Mother born in US in 1947
↓
Me, born in US in 1985

My question is:

Under current Canadian citizenship law (including recent changes affecting citizenship by descent / Lost Canadians), is there any possible path to citizenship for descendants when the chain passes through a child legally adopted by the Canadian-born ancestor rather than a biological child?

Or does the fact that the adoption occurred in the US in 1920 and my grandmother never held Canadian citizenship effectively end the possibility?

I realize this is an unusual edge case, but I’d appreciate any insight.

 

[armoured]

I believe the answer is no - I recall reading it somewhere recently but can't off the top of my head say exactly where.

Don't take this as last word, do look into it. But I believe it has to be a clean series of biological links, or at least the adopted individual had to have acquired Canadian citizenship during their lifetime (formally) and biological descent after that.

So as far as I'm aware the only way this could work in your favour would be if your grandmother (biological grandmother to you, that is) had acquired (documented) Canadian citizenship during her lifetime. (And I do not know procedure for that at the specific time, but assume that even if it was possible at the time, that you would know and/or be able to document it - and probably would not have been possible if residing in USA at that time). [Important warning: I'm not sure that even my hypothetical 'works', I'm going by a bit of memory and logic.]

 

[hawk39]

I’m trying to determine whether I may have any claim to Canadian citizenship by descent under current law changes, but my family situation involves adoption and a very old timeline, so I’m hoping someone knowledgeable can weigh in.

Here is the family chain:

• My great-grandmother was born in Canada (I am still confirming exact date/place of birth).
• At some point, she moved from Canada to the United States. I do not yet know what year.
• In 1920, while living in the United States, she legally adopted my grandmother. My grandmother (born in US in 1919) was not her biological child.
• My grandmother never held Canadian citizenship papers or a Canadian passport, as far as my family knows.
• My mother was born in the United States in 1947.
• I was born in the United States in 1985.

So the chain is:

Canadian-born great-grandmother
↓
Adopted grandmother (adopted in US in 1920, non-biological child, born in US in 1919)
↓
Mother born in US in 1947
↓
Me, born in US in 1985

My question is:

Under current Canadian citizenship law (including recent changes affecting citizenship by descent / Lost Canadians), is there any possible path to citizenship for descendants when the chain passes through a child legally adopted by the Canadian-born ancestor rather than a biological child?

Or does the fact that the adoption occurred in the US in 1920 and my grandmother never held Canadian citizenship effectively end the possibility?

I realize this is an unusual edge case, but I’d appreciate any insight.

Based solely on the word usage of the current Citizenship Act, I do not believe an adoptee can claim citizenship the same way as a biological child. Each paragraph under 3(1) that describes children of citizens seem to have been written to differentiate biological and adopted children; paragraph (b), which would be used to describe the most recent cases, has the clearest language:

• "(b) the person was born outside Canada after February 14, 1977 and at the time of his birth one of his parents, other than a parent who adopted him, was a citizen;"

For your specific case, your great-grandmother is a citizen under 3(1)(k), which says:

• "(k) the person, before January 1, 1947, was born or naturalized in Canada but ceased to be a British subject, and did not become a citizen on that day;"

Your adopted grandmother would then be described as under 3(1)(o), which says:

• "(o) the person was born outside Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador before January 1, 1947 to a parent who is a citizen under paragraph (k) or (m), and the person did not become a citizen on that day;"

"born ... to a parent" would seem to indicate that the link has to be biological and not adopted.

One could argue that under 2(1), the definition of the word "child" should be used to describe the person in those paragraphs:

• "child includes a child adopted or legitimized in accordance with the laws of the place where the adoption or legitimation took place;"

However, given the convoluted verbiage that is often found in law, if that is what was intended, then I believe that it should have been written as "the person, who was born outside of Canada, is a child of a parent ...".