MWEISENBURG said:
Now I'm even more confused:
As to point #1 - My father was born in December of 1947 (not 1978 - I don't know if that makes a difference). His effective date of citizenship is Dec 1947 (his birthday).
As to point #2 - (And this is where I get confused)... My birth was never registered with the government, at least not to my knowledge. Are you saying that because I was born in 1972 it should have been registered? My citizenship certificate says that my Effective date of citizenship is Jan 1972 (my birthday) it does not mention anything about becoming a citizen in 2009. But, if the effective date of my citizenship was Jan 1972 I don't understand how citizenship would not be given to my children born in 2000 and 2002, respectively? On the CIC website it says "There are a number of laws and rules that affect if your children are Canadian. They probably are because most children born to Canadian parents before April 17, 2009, were citizens at birth."
Sorry but this is just all sooo confusing. Thank you for your reply.
1. I don't think I said your father was born in 1978. I said he
became a U.S. citizen in 1978, because you had said it was when you were 6. If it was before February 14, 1977, he would have lost Canadian citizenship at that time, but regained it on April 17, 2009.
2. The fact that your certificate states that you were a citizen since the date of your birth does not mean that you were a citizen when your children were born. I know it sounds illogical, but, yes, your birth had to be registered and you were not a citizen in, say, 2000. Imagine that you had applied for a Canadian passport in 2000. Would you have been issued one? The answer is no. That's because your birth had not been registered and you didn't become a citizen until April 17, 2009.
There are a number of citizenship acts and amendments with numerous provisions, and I can't go into all of them here. However, I will say that between 1947 and 1977, the birth abroad of the child of a Canadian citizen had to be registered. Not only that, but the person had to confirm their citizenship upon reaching adulthood. From 1977 until 2004, it was possible for those persons whose births had not been registered as children to do so themselves. Then, due to pressure from "Lost Canadians" (people who would have been Canadian citizens but for antiquated, sometimes sexist, rules and regulations), a law was passed that became effective on April 17, 2009, that did several things. It
returned citizenship to all those who had lost it by becoming, say, American citizens before 1977, and it
gave citizenship for the first time to children born abroad in the first generation. However, it limited citizenship to that 1st generation. The law did not take citizenship away from anyone, so if your children had already been Canadian, they would be Canadian now. In 2015, there were even more changes, but they don't apply to your situation.
See: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules_2009.asp
Note this, which applies to your children:
"In 2009, you did not become a Canadian citizen if you: were born outside Canada to a Canadian parent, were not already a Canadian citizen or you had lost your citizenship in the past, and you were born in the second or subsequent generation (this includes people who failed to retain citizenship)."
I don't know if I can make you understand all of this, but if you have more questions, feel free to ask. You may just have to wait for a reply from CIC.