"Grandmother's dream trip at risk over government red tape"

[Indigo]

Totally joking here, but maybe in lieu of both passports she can show up in Hawaii with her American birth certificate circa 1927 and then show up to reboard her plane for Canada with her landing record circa 1929 - in which case I'd love to see the looks on peoples' faces when she pulled those documents out.

I imagine an old lady at an airport. She looks a bit out of place and a bit nervous. She is wearing her best dress and is of course wearing a quaint hat on her neatly coiffured grey hair. She politely answers the questions the BO has for her. And then she reaches into her old lady purse that looks somewhat like this:

but maybe pink, or yellow with flowers. After struggling with the snaps, she opens the purse and starts rummaging through it. And out she pulls this antique document, puts on her reading glasses (which were dangling on her chest from a golden cord of course) in order to confirm it is the right one, and triumphantly hands it over to the stunned BO.




Awesome! ;D

 

[ddobro2]

ROFL, exactly! Why that scene was exquisitely portrayed Indigo, you need to start writing books or scripts.

And hey, might be a granny bag, but I like that purse

I imagine an old lady at an airport. She looks a bit out of place and a bit nervous. She is wearing her best dress and is of course wearing a quaint hat on her neatly coiffured grey hair. She politely answers the questions the BO has for her. And then she reaches into her old lady purse that looks somewhat like this:

but maybe pink, or yellow with flowers. After struggling with the snaps, she opens the purse and starts rummaging through it. And out she pulls this antique document, puts on her reading glasses (which were dangling on her chest from a golden cord of course) in order to confirm it is the right one, and triumphantly hands it over to the stunned BO.




Awesome! ;D

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

I understand she is a US citizen? In that case, what I would do is get a fast track US passport. If she has a US birth certificate, that should take no more than 2 or 3 weeks. Make sure to gather the immigration papers, including the payment receipt, and go on a trip to Hawaii as a family.

Agreed. I assume the issue is not that she is an illegal immigrant anyway to Canada, but rather a PR that never moved forward to get her citizenship. I have seen other people mention on here that they have gotten their children proof of citizenship papers from CIC within 3 or 4 mths after application, so I have to assume that this is really an application for citizenship and not proof of citizenship. In which case, she should be able to travel to and from the U.S. on her U.S. passport, and present her PR card at the border along with the passport.

I really don't understand how this situation causes them to not be able to go on their trip, unless it turns out she's actually been in Canada illegally all of these years and is worried they won't let her back across the border once she leaves. That said, if she doesn't have a copy of her birth certificate it may take some time to get out of the archives (I would assume that most places have archived birth certificates from that far back), which could put the trip in jeopardy still if it comes back too late to fast track the passport application. Unfortunately this article sounds more like a family that doesn't quite understand the situation, and has not made an effort to fully understand it regardless of how longer her citizenship application has taken.

 

[Indigo]

If she was my grandmother I would have grabbed my laptop and hung on to it like a pittbull, and googled and researched until I found an acceptable solution for my grandma.

I think my zodiac sign is pittbull...

 

[ddobro2]

And the irony of it is that she's lived 82 of her 84 years in Ottawa, not home of where her file is sitting in a big backlog but home of where these laws that are messing up her vacay plans (while completely necessary to the functioning of a republic, don't get me wrong ) were written. Oh, and the fact that this lady has never gone on vacation outside of Canada until now is a bit sad too. Someone seriously get the whole family an extra set of leis if they ever make it out there.

Agreed. I assume the issue is not that she is an illegal immigrant anyway to Canada, but rather a PR that never moved forward to get her citizenship. I have seen other people mention on here that they have gotten their children proof of citizenship papers from CIC within 3 or 4 mths after application, so I have to assume that this is really an application for citizenship and not proof of citizenship. In which case, she should be able to travel to and from the U.S. on her U.S. passport, and present her PR card at the border along with the passport.

I really don't understand how this situation causes them to not be able to go on their trip, unless it turns out she's actually been in Canada illegally all of these years and is worried they won't let her back across the border once she leaves. That said, if she doesn't have a copy of her birth certificate it may take some time to get out of the archives (I would assume that most places have archived birth certificates from that far back), which could put the trip in jeopardy still if it comes back too late to fast track the passport application. Unfortunately this article sounds more like a family that doesn't quite understand the situation, and has not made an effort to fully understand it regardless of how longer her citizenship application has taken.

 

[ddobro2]

Meanwhile, at least there's one Canadian that's made it out to Hawai'i, bwahahahaha: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/updated-topics/-t90066.0.html;topicseen. Yes, I've been busy on this board today, siiiiiiiigh.


See here for the smiley-smiley Obama-Harper photo-op: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/12/05/pol-cp-perimeter-robertson.html

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

If she was my grandmother I would have grabbed my laptop and hung on to it like a pittbull, and googled and researched until I found an acceptable solution for my grandma.

I think my zodiac sign is pittbull...

Hahaha! That would be an awesome zodiac sign!

Seriously, someone needs to contact this family and let them know that there are other viable options out there to help them get their grandma to Hawaii!

 

[AAL1984]

Sorry but this family is not very smart, all she has to do is take her birth certificate to a U.S embassy and she will get a U.S passport. She can use her passport to get back into Canada and wait for her application to process, their unlikely to bother her or try and remove her.

 

[parker24]

OT The blue elephant is related to a comment made in the forum about another immigration requirement

Back on topic
Another thing that this lady also needs to consider is:

She is an American citizen (unless it has been revoked), I understand that US citizens are meant to use their passport when entering the USA, even if they hold another passport.

How do you show a passport when you were two years old and it was 1930's... Back then you didn't need a passport to get into Canada. My aunt was born in the states, raised here in Canada, but she never had a passport until she was 35...

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

How do you show a passport when you were two years old and it was 1930's... Back then you didn't need a passport to get into Canada. My aunt was born in the states, raised here in Canada, but she never had a passport until she was 35...

They changed the rules within the last 10 yrs, and now anyone entering the U.S. needs a passport (I used to cross the border regularly as a child with only my birth certificate). She has apparently not left Canada since that law was changed. I would only guess either she had a passport when she got her parents got her a PR visa as a child and it expired, or at the time a passport wasn't a necessary part of the paperwork.

To get a new passport she'd have to bring a copy of her birth certificate to the embassy in Ottawa, fill out the paperwork, pay the fees and wait a few weeks for it to be delivered. Really, it's the more obvious and easier option for her, and it's surprising that the family would get so bent out of shape about her getting citizenship at this point when she has citizenship for the country they want to go visit....

 

[amaranth]

To get a new passport she'd have to bring a copy of her birth certificate to the embassy in Ottawa, fill out the paperwork, pay the fees and wait a few weeks for it to be delivered. Really, it's the more obvious and easier option for her, and it's surprising that the family would get so bent out of shape about her getting citizenship at this point when she has citizenship for the country they want to go visit....

But... but... it's so much more fun to take a good "tuggin' the ol' heartstrings" story to the media instead of figuring out the other available options! :

 

[ddobro2]

Even if she doesn't have her birth certificate, if one was issued it would be saved in the birth state's archives (it's not like it was more than a century ago. The old man with the opposite problem - born in Canada to American parents - did run into a problem with that because the state where his father was born didnt have records before 1880 and his father was born two years earlier.) - IF one was issued. Wish the author would have asked them this stuff and included it in the article.

I believe that being a natural-born citizen, this granny (not needing any gov't I.D. her whole life, I'd bet she was a housewife and let her husband take care of a lot of the legal stuff) also technically would have had to file taxes each year with the IRS, but she didn't do that either, I take it.

As far as giving this family a hint, I think hopefully they'll get that when they see the article and start reading some of the comments. Her son does say she's a "worrier," which is odd - apparently she only started worrying about her legal status in a country when she got to be an octogenarian.

Oh, and I really think the other information in the article about the huge backlog for citizenship and the general practices of CIC are much more important than this individual case

 

[Baloo]

How do you show a passport when you were two years old and it was 1930's... Back then you didn't need a passport to get into Canada. My aunt was born in the states, raised here in Canada, but she never had a passport until she was 35...

I was not suggesting that she had a passport at two years old.
My point is that a US citizen has to use a US passport when entering the USA - it seems that she will also need a US passport.

 

[rjessome]

I wonder if it's that "easy" a fix as getting a US passport. Has anyone who commented researched citizenship and immigration laws of either country dating back 82 years? Although she was born in the US did she (or her parents) relinquish her US citizenship when she immigrated 82 years ago? Was it possible to be a dual citizen back then? I have a feeling that there is more to this and I'm too busy and tired to research it myself. I'll bet PMM knows.

As I've said many times, the average Canadian knows diddley squat about immigration. Speaking as a Canadian born and raised, my first experience with it was somewhat shocking and felt very unCanadian. Normally, when I see a time on a website for a Canadian government service, it's pretty close to accurate. Changes are NOT really the norm and neither is not being able to call anyone and get a straight answer. So while everyone embroiled in immigration knows about changing processing times, it is NOT the sort of thing the average Canadian knows. The family trusted in the system and then went about their daily lives. That's pretty Canadian of them.

 

[AmericaninQuebec]

I wonder if it's that "easy" a fix as getting a US passport. Has anyone who commented researched citizenship and immigration laws of either country dating back 82 years? Although she was born in the US did she (or her parents) relinquish her US citizenship when she immigrated 82 years ago? Was it possible to be a dual citizen back then? I have a feeling that there is more to this and I'm too busy and tired to research it myself. I'll bet PMM knows.

If she'd relinquished her citizenship in the past in order to gain Canadian citizenship (assuming it was required) then she would already have her Canadian citizenship. If she'd relinquished her citizenship without having another then she'd be a stateless person (not generally a good position to be in). This includes if she had PR in Canada, because PR does not (obviously) give you citizenship. You can't lose U.S. citizenship just by living outside of the country, so she or her parents would have had to have taken very active steps to relinquish it.

Also, someone else mentioned her needing a U.S. passport to enter the U.S. That's not technically true, she could enter on a Canadian passport, but then she would be treated as a tourist and not as a citizen. This could cause problems if she wanted to stay long term and/or work (ha) in the U.S, since she'd be there as a Canadian tourist and not a U.S. citizen. I think they really do prefer that you use the right passport on entering, but I don't think they wouldn't let her in on a Canadian passport if she had one.