My mother was born in New Brunswick in 1940, and lived in Canada until 1964, when she married a US citizen and moved to the U.S. and had me (also in 1964). She became a naturalized US citizen in the mid 1990's (I believe she is now a dual citizen). Am I a citizen? I know there are a lot of factors (she was born before 1947, she's my mother instead of father, I was born in U.S., etc) and that there have been changes in the law. Can someone help me? I have the application and know I can send it in for a definitive answer. However, I live near the U.S.-Canadian border (U.S. side), and would like to start planning to move. Having an idea would let me know whether it would be worth it to get a shorter 6-month lease and pay more each month. I would much prefer to live in Canada and commute to the U.S. for work (I think I understand the tax implications).
Am I a citizen (very confused)?
- Thread starter Elysia
- Start date
You do not mention the year you were born, but assuming it was before 1977, yes, you are a Canadian citizen. The date you became a citizen was April 17, 2009, but your citizenship status is retroactive to your date of birth. (If you have any children, however, they would not have gained Canadian citizenship.) If, by chance, you were born in 1977 or after, you would have become a Canadian citizen at birth, but would have needed to retain your citizenship by age 28 (if you turned 28 before April 17, 2009). If you did not, you would have lost Canadian citizenship at age 28, and you would not have it now.Elysia said:
Thank you. I was born in 1964. I had reasoned that my mother became a Canadian citizen in 1947 when she was 7, and the 2009 law made me a citizen based on being first generation. Part of my confusion was that a Canadian border agent told me that I was not. He said that because she was born before 1947, that she was never considered a Canadian citizen and so I wasn't. That seemed incorrect, but the complexity of the rules and all of the changes made me unsure. I was also told by someone else that if my father had been Canadian, that I would have been, but that my mother having me in wedlock with a foregner meant she couldn't pass citizenship down. I hope (and believe) that you are correct. I've been told a lot of conflicting things. Now to send in my paperwork...
I once had a Canadian border agent tell me that I couldn't be a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen. They're definitely not citizenship experts! In your case, though, the agent would have been correct if your mother had left Canada before 1947 and became a U.S. citizen, but you say your mother was in Canada until 1964! Obviously, she was a Canadian citizen. And, yes, whoever told you that your mother couldn't pass Canadian citizenship on to you because it was your mother who was Canadian, not your father, was correct, too. But...that was all made right by the 2009 law.Elysia said:
By the way, I see that you did initially mention your year of birth. I just missed it.
Thank you so much for your help! I had edited my post to make my birth year clear, so that wasn't you. I am feeling much, much better about all of this, and am so glad I found this forum. I realize that a border agent isn't an expert, but my grandfather was a Canadian border agent, and so I think I tend to give them a lot more credit as experts than is probably realistic. I was almost not going to send in the paperwork because I didn't want to get my hopes up. I had looked into citizenship before the 2009 changes and felt sort of hurt about it. All of my relatives outside of my immediate family are Canadian, so I've always had a very strong emotional connection. Thank you again.