Risk of losing Citizenship for my wife - working outside Canada

[Popek]

Hi guys!

I’ve a quick question for you:

My wife is from China and she got her Canadian citizenship last year. Me, I’m 100% Canadian since birth: P

I have an opportunity to go work in China, but I’m not sure about the consequences for my wife, so my questions are:

- Will she loose her Canadian citizenship? If so, after how many months/year outside the country?
- And what about me? Will I lose some privileges? Or even worst my citizenship? (let say for example I go work in China for the next 5 years)

Thanks in advance!

 

[scylla]

Neither of you are at risk of losing your citizenship. There is no residency requirement for citizenship.

You can never lose your citizenship regardless what you do because you were born here.

Your wife could only lose her citizenship if she made a very serious misrepresentation when applying for citizenship and this was later discovered (e.g. lying about the number of days she spent in Canada to qualify for citizenship).

Go ahead with your plans...

 

[h3a3j6]

Neither of you are at risk of losing your citizenship. There is no residency requirement for citizenship.

You can never lose your citizenship regardless what you do because you were born here.

Your wife could only lose her citizenship if she made a very serious misrepresentation when applying for citizenship and this was later discovered (e.g. lying about the number of days she spent in Canada to qualify for citizenship).

Go ahead with your plans...

So, not trying to start a debate here. But this MAY not be the case moving forward, depending on how they finalize bill C-24. There is a big debate about it in the Canadian Parliament and this is open for interpretation...

Just saying... Wait to see how the whole bill will end up at the end of the discussions.

 

[admontreal]

They will have a LOT of work in that case, they don't even have enough staff to process the citizenship applications in a reasonable timeframe, so I really doubt they will allocate officers to start tracking the movements of all the Canadian citizens abroad. What would be the difference between a canadian passport and a permanent resident card in that case ? (in addition to the freedom of movement)

But as you said h3a3j6, we are not going to start another debate here.

 

[YYC_CICGUY]

Even if they have staff, I dont think they can track you and strip your citizenship...I believe its unconstitutional and against Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, see Mobility rights for citizens.

Unless they ammend all such provisions, I dont think its viable, moreover for single citizenship holders it many not be possible as person becomes Stateless if cancelled.

Lawmakers are still discussing about the interpretition and applicability, we need to wait and see who all fall under this category whether they apply this ever?

 

[h3a3j6]

Yes, I read the last discussions on the openparliament website (if you want to get live updates about the topic, use this RSS feed: http://openparliament.ca/bills/7500/rss/) and the discussion is pretty intense.

My concern as you just said is that the final bill may be prone to human interpretation...

 

[h3a3j6]

They will have a LOT of work in that case, they don't even have enough staff to process the citizenship applications in a reasonable timeframe, so I really doubt they will allocate officers to start tracking the movements of all the Canadian citizens abroad. What would be the difference between a canadian passport and a permanent resident card in that case ? (in addition to the freedom of movement)

But as you said h3a3j6, we are not going to start another debate here.

;-)

 

[shaazdeh]

There is no way, they can remove the citizenship from you solely because you decide to live in another country! ( as ling as she won't make any act of terrorism if Bill C24 passes) ))

We are in Canada not North Korea!