Am I a Canadian Citizen

[AlisterS]

Hi, and apologies if I am posting in the wrong place

My grandfather was in the Canadian Navy, coming from Britain as an officer on board one of the RCN's first ships, the cruiser Niobe, in 1910. From 1914-1916, during the early part of WWI, he commanded the ship, and saw some active service blockading and boarding German ships off the eastern seaboard of Canada and the US. Throughout this time he lived in Halifax, the naval base.

Am I right in thinking this would have made him automatically a Canadian citizen?

He returned to Britain in 1916, where he had a daughter, my mother, in 1921. If he was automatically a citizen, was she?

And if she was, would that entitle me to Canadian citizenship? I was born in 1955.

 

[GFLiam]

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...dian-citizen/eligibility/already-citizen.html

According to this, if your mother didn't become a naturalized Canadian Citizen before you were born, you may not be a Canadian Citizen. Furthermore, I don't know if serving in the Canadian Navy would automatically make your grandfather a naturalized Canadian Citizen.

The most direct way for you to confirm is to try and apply for a Canadian Citizenship Certificate and then you'd know.

 

[AlisterS]

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...dian-citizen/eligibility/already-citizen.html

According to this, if your mother didn't become a naturalized Canadian Citizen before you were born, you may not be a Canadian Citizen. Furthermore, I don't know if serving in the Canadian Navy would automatically make your grandfather a naturalized Canadian Citizen.

The most direct way for you to confirm is to try and apply for a Canadian Citizenship Certificate and then you'd know.

Hi, and thanks for your quick reply

As I understand it, as my mother was born so long ago, it may have been a time when she would automatically have had citizenship without having to apply. But I haven't found anything definitive on this, this is why I posted here

I'm kind of hesitant to spend over $600 on an application without having a bit more probability as to the outcome

 

[armoured]

My grandfather was in the Canadian Navy, coming from Britain as an officer on board one of the RCN's first ships, the cruiser Niobe, in 1910. From 1914-1916, during the early part of WWI, he commanded the ship, and saw some active service blockading and boarding German ships off the eastern seaboard of Canada and the US. Throughout this time he lived in Halifax, the naval base.

Am I right in thinking this would have made him automatically a Canadian citizen?

I don't think so but not an expert. The citizenship act of 1946 required five years residency.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Citizenship_Act,_1946

I don't see that his service in the RCN conferred citizenship, but that is a potentially tricky bit.

I'm kind of hesitant to spend over $600 on an application without having a bit more probability as to the outcome

The fee to apply for a certificate of citizenship is only $75, and that's what applies to those determining whether they already are citizens.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...dian-citizenship/proof-citizenship/about.html

Before doing so, you might want to check this:
https://ircc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3pJ5oXgZNBj0r1c?Q_Language=EN

It's an 'am I a citizen' tool. That said, I don't think it's terribly reliable, esp for cases like yours that depend upon a military status before WWII.

 

[hawk39]

Hi, and apologies if I am posting in the wrong place

My grandfather was in the Canadian Navy, coming from Britain as an officer on board one of the RCN's first ships, the cruiser Niobe, in 1910. From 1914-1916, during the early part of WWI, he commanded the ship, and saw some active service blockading and boarding German ships off the eastern seaboard of Canada and the US. Throughout this time he lived in Halifax, the naval base.

Am I right in thinking this would have made him automatically a Canadian citizen?

He returned to Britain in 1916, where he had a daughter, my mother, in 1921. If he was automatically a citizen, was she?

And if she was, would that entitle me to Canadian citizenship? I was born in 1955.

As suggested by @armoured, under the 1946 Act, a British subject became Canadian if he/she had lived in Canada for 5 years prior to the commencement of Canadian citizenship, but more specifically under section 9(1)(b) of the Act, it had to be five years immediately before commencement, meaning your grandfather needed to have established permanent residence in Canada by January 1, 1942 and stayed for five years in order to have become Canadian on January 1, 1947.

9(1) A person other than a natural-born Canadian, is a Canadian citizen, if he (a) was granted, or his name was included in a certificate of naturalization and he has not become an alien at the commencement of this Act; or (b) immediately before the commencement of this Act was a British subject who had Canadian domicile

The only statute mentioned in the 1946 Act regarding military service is section 10(4), which basically says that military or civil service abroad counts towards fulfilling the residency requirement when applying for naturalization under section 10.

(4) Any period during which an applicant for a certificate of citizenship has served in the armed forces of Canada or was employed outside of Canada in the public service of Canada or of a province thereof, otherwise than as a locally engaged person, shall be treated as equivalent, to a period of residence in Canada for the purposes of subsection one and subsection two of this section.

So unfortunately, I don't think your grandfather ever became Canadian, either automatically or voluntarily, and neither are you.