I've been reading up Canadian citizenship and have found out that both Canada and the UK allow dual citizenship. The thing is, I don't really understand what this means ...

My mother-in-law, who is English, is married to an Irishman and lives in Ireland. She has two passports, one for each country, but I don't really understand what the advantage of this is. If you're a dual citizen of Canada and UK, does that mean you have two passports? If so, why?

The other thing I wasn't sure on is, once you've done your three years in Canada and become a dual citizen, does this mean you have the choice of living for any periods of time in either country? E.g., could you live for say 10 years in the UK and then live back in Canada for a bit without having to reapply for PR/citizenship? Or even go back to the UK and then retire in Canada?

[quote=JTM73;6569192]I've been reading up Canadian citizenship and have found out that both Canada and the UK allow dual citizenship. The thing is, I don't really understand what this means ...


After 3 years in Canada (all requirements having been met) you can apply for Canadian citizenship. On this being granted you can apply for a Canadian Passport if you wish.

If you choose to have a passport from each country you can, you can. Your choice. I have dual Citizenship but only hold a UK Passport. Don't see the point in getting a Canadian Passport at this time...needless expense. When my UK passport expires, I will apply for a Canadian passport and itsd unlikely I will renew my UK passport. anyway, strictly speaking, you can only use one e.g. when travelling as the same passport must be used thruout your trip (strictly speaking)

Once you have citizenship (of both countries), you can pretty well travel to/stay in either country pretty much as you please.

The above is just a general response to your query

It's convenient to arrive in a country with the passport of that country, there tends to be less bother involved. It may also be advantageous to have multiple passports if you visit countries that are not friendly to one another, for example my daughter visits Cuba on her Swiss passport but uses her Canadian one to visit the US. One might want to have, for example, one passport for Israel and another for Arab countries.

I applied for Canadian citizenship as soon as I could because:

a) this is my country now and I expect to be here till I croak, so I should be a citizen
b) I want to vote
c) to save $6 each time I go to the US.

I have no intention of renouncing my British citizenship because:

a) I am British
b) I retain the option of spending as much time as I want in Britain and most of Europe. Even if I have no intention of moving back to live I have family there and who knows what the future might bring?

The only disadvantage of dual citizenship is that you will not get consular help in the other country. If I am in the UK the Canadian government will do nothing for me, and if I am in Canada the UK government will offer no help.

The only disadvantage of maintaining two passports is the cost.

also
d) opens up a lot of canadian government jobs, if that's of interest
e) if the worst comes to the worst for me, it opens up a lot of the US job market as its much easier for US employers to get a Nafta based skilled visa for a Canadian.


There is no down side as far as I can see.

Passports to go with your citizenship are purely optional. My UK passport has now lapsed, and just for the sake of avoiding the queue at Heathrow I am not going to spend a couple of hundred bucks to renew it when a canadian passport is cheaper and less hassle to maintain.

Not heard of this; what is it?


Thanks to everyone for all your replies: they've been really useful.

I94W temporary green card form you need to go into the US. I think they are good for about 6 months if you are a frequent visitor to the states, but things might have changed since I last had to fill one out.

Good point!

I was being a bit liberal with the truth. As a PR in Canada, with a British passport, I did not have to pay the $6.00. MY OH was also PR here but traveled on a Japanese passport and she had to pay $6.00 for a temporary visitor visa that lasted up to 90 days.

Why would one not go to Cuba on a Canadian passport? It's rather Canada-friendly.

There are certainly advantages to arriving in countries with the appropriate passport, provided you remember which one you are meant to present at any given time. I've already been told off at LHR for offering up the wrong one. I was a tad more careful in the early 90s, when I moved around the Middle East on two different British passports.

Out of concern that a stamp from Cuba would be a negative factor on entering the US.

I must remember to remove the pages in my passport of my trips to North Korea, Iran, Myanamar

I assume that if you take Canadian citizenship, you have to file a Canadian tax return each year? This could be a bummer if you wanted to move to a low-taxation destination.

You can be a Canadian citizen but not resident in Canada for tax purposes. If you leave Canada to live somewhere else and sever all residential ties here you will cease to be tax resident in Canada, but you will not lose your citizenship. The US requires you to file a tax return to retain citizenship, but Canada is more like the UK.

Why would you have to do that? I have british citizenship, and have not filed a return there since '98.

If you leave canada, then you just file a non resident declaration. At least, thats what my wife did when she was working and living overseas.