Question about citizenship status

[JonoHart]

Just interested to see what the citizenship status would be of the following child in this situation:

A married couple who live in Canada have a child in the US. The mother is a born and raised Canadian, while the father was originally from America but moved to Canada in 1971.

The child is born in 1990, and obviously since the couple live in Canada, the child lives and is brought up in that country, its just the birthplace is outside Canada.

 

[CanadianCountry]

The child is dual, Canadian by descent and American by birth.

Hope it answers your question.

Just interested to see what the citizenship status would be of the following child in this situation:

A married couple who live in Canada have a child in the US. The mother is a born and raised Canadian, while the father was originally from America but moved to Canada in 1971.

The child is born in 1990, and obviously since the couple live in Canada, the child lives and is brought up in that country, its just the birthplace is outside Canada.

 

[OhCanadiana]

Just interested to see what the citizenship status would be of the following child in this situation:

A married couple who live in Canada have a child in the US. The mother is a born and raised Canadian, while the father was originally from America but moved to Canada in 1971.

The child is born in 1990, and obviously since the couple live in Canada, the child lives and is brought up in that country, its just the birthplace is outside Canada.

The son is a dual US and Canadian citizen.

He is a US citizen from birth.

Since the Mother was Canadian, her son is a Canadian citizen through her. The son can get a Canadian citizenship certificate as proof of citizenship and then a passport if he wishes. For more details see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/rules/index.asp.

 

[JonoHart]

That mentions being born after April 17, 2009 which is not the case in this scenario.

I'm also wondering if descent works both ways. For example, take the situation I mentioned except assume the child WAS born in Canada, would they still gain US citizenship via descent of the father?

 

[CanadianCountry]

Even illegal (out of marriage) sons/daughters of American citizens born out of US are American citizens as per the law, as the children carry half American blood. (Referring to Vietnamese mothers, US army soldiers during Vietnam war era)

That mentions being born after April 17, 2009 which is not the case in this scenario.

I'm also wondering if descent works both ways. For example, take the situation I mentioned except assume the child WAS born in Canada, would they still gain US citizenship via descent of the father?

 

[OhCanadiana]

That mentions being born after April 17, 2009 which is not the case in this scenario.

At the top, yes, because the page goes into extra detail into explaining the changes to the requirements post April 17 2009 amendments to the Citizenship Act. Further down it has the links to apply for citizenship (including instructions with details on eligibility) and to additional scenarios to review (and usually the Am I a Citizen tool, which is currently being reworked).

I'm also wondering if descent works both ways. For example, take the situation I mentioned except assume the child WAS born in Canada, would they still gain US citizenship via descent of the father?

US citizenship by descent has additional requirements - a physical presence in the US prior to the child's birth if the child was born after 1986. See http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship/citizenship-through-parents

 

[JonoHart]

At the top, yes, because the page goes into extra detail into explaining the changes to the requirements post April 17 2009 amendments to the Citizenship Act. Further down it has the links to apply for citizensh,p (including instructions with details on eligibility) and to additional scenarios to review (and usually the Am I a Citizen toolm which is currently being reworked).

So I'm assuming that in this case the child would not have been a Canadian citizen had the 2009 changes not happened.

US citizenship by descent has additional requirements - a physical presence in the US prior to the child's birth if the child was born after 1986. See

Lets say the father spend the first 23 years of his life in the US, then moved to Canada and spent the next 20 there (so was 43 when the child was born). Would that be enough physical presence in the US, on the part of the father, for the child to gain citizenship?

 

[CanadianCountry]

This is what the law says:

"The U.S. citizen parent had been physically present in the U.S. or its territories for a period of at least five years at some time in his or her life prior to the birth, of which at least two years were after his or her 14th birthday. "

So I'm assuming that in this case the child would not have been a Canadian citizen had the 2009 changes not happened.

Lets say the father spend the first 23 years of his life in the US, then moved to Canada and spent the next 20 there (so was 43 when the child was born). Would that be enough physical presence in the US, on the part of the father, for the child to gain citizenship?

 

[alphazip]

So I'm assuming that in this case the child would not have been a Canadian citizen had the 2009 changes not happened.

Lets say the father spend the first 23 years of his life in the US, then moved to Canada and spent the next 20 there (so was 43 when the child was born). Would that be enough physical presence in the US, on the part of the father, for the child to gain citizenship?

1) The child would be a Canadian citizen with or without the 2009 changes UNLESS the Canadian citizen parent had become a U.S. (or other) citizen before 1977. If so, the parent and child are Canadian citizens only by virtue of the 2009 changes.

2) The U.S. citizen parent must have been physically present in the U.S. or its territories for a period of at least five years at some time in his or her life prior to the birth, of which at least two years were after his or her 14th birthday.

 

[alphazip]

Even illegal (out of marriage) sons/daughters of American citizens born out of US are American citizens as per the law, as the children carry half American blood. (Referring to Vietnamese mothers, US army soldiers during Vietnam war era)

Well, maybe in some cases U.S. soldiers passed their citizenship on to their Vietnamese-born children, but more often the children didn't even know their fathers and were abandoned by them.

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-amerasians10-2008oct10-story.html#page=1

 

[alphazip]

Here are a couple useful charts regarding the acquisition of U.S. citizenship by children born to a U.S. citizen abroad.

In wedlock: http://www.ilrc.org/files/documents/natz_chart-a-2014-05_01_final.pdf

Out of wedlock: http://www.ilrc.org/files/documents/natz_chart-b-2014-05_1_final.pdf