magnumpi

Got your sons ?

As in your son !! With you being Canadian by decent. Would he not be 2nd generation? How old is he ?

MarylandNed

What was your wife applying for? Was she applying to BECOME a Canadian citizen? Or was she applying for PROOF of her existing Canadian citizenship? These are 2 different things. Applying for proof should not take 2 years. A citizenship cert should be issued to existing Canadian citizens in about 5 months.

bert07

Eldest is born before 2009 therefore is a citizen by descent. Younger two are after 2009 so unable to claim by descent.

Snowy560

But if you sponsored them to become PRs you could then apply for a grant of citizenship once they are PRs.

bert07

We will when we need to - it's more sibling rivalry when they realise one got an easy ride and the other two have to jump hoops!

magnumpi

Proof of Canadian Citizenship same as OP. Her mum was born in Canada.

magnumpi

We have looked into this for our oldest son, he was born 1985, but we cannot see how he is Canadian by decent? As he is second generation and that's not allowed. Are you sure your son didnt become a citizen because he is a dependent?

bert07

You do not become a citizen because you are a dependent, you must still meet the required rules!

From the snippets of information you have given - child born before 2009, Canadian parent (awaiting certificate) and Canadian grandparent it suggests they are also already citizen.

However, given it has taken 2 years to get you certificate when it takes others 6 months would suggest you are not doing something right with paperwork therefore I would recommend you see a immigration lawyer who could advise and support with paperwork.

magnumpi

I said it "took" almost 2 years, that was 2-3 years ago. It's done and all her papers were in order. I got my citizenship via the test and oath route.

As for son he was born to UK parent who later became a citizen.

That makes him second generation and NOT eligible for citizenship. But some how your son got citizenship so I was questioning how you went about it so I can look into it further

MarylandNed

It's not as simple as that. It depends on a couple of things including when he was born and the citizenship status of his parents at the time of his birth. The ending of Canadian citizenship for 2nd generation born abroad came about in 2009 and was not retroactive. So it's possible for someone in the 2nd generation born abroad to be a Canadian citizen (e.g. if they were born before Apr 17th 2009 to a parent who was a Canadian citizen at the time of the birth).


Changes to citizenship rules


You can use this tool by answering the questions from the point of view of your son.


See if you may be a citizen

Snowy560

+1

bert07

They are claiming citizenship by descent therefore the person claiming it has always been citizen since birth even though they didn't have proof of it. The person is not applying for citizenship but claiming what was already theirs.
Even though I didn't have a physical citizenship certificate when my son was born I was still a citizen (it's start date on my certificate is my dob). This means my son had a Canadian citizen parent when born.

Jase84

We also have 1 child before and 2 after April 2009 (2008, 2011 & 2013), so our eldest may also be a citizen!

So once you had certificate, were you able to move to Canada and then applied for your child's from within Canada? Do your other children have PR instead of citizenship?

Am I right in thinking it's $75 to get proof of citizenship?

Thanks again for everyone's advice.

bert07

Sounds like eldest may be. To request the certificate, yes it's the $75 fee and you'd need certified copies of parent cit certificate plus your birth certificate etc. You send it all with the form to london and then originals are sent back pretty quick and randomly abort 6 months later certificate appears in the post.
I guess you could send sons at the same time but I wouldn't know for sure.

Things have changed since we went out there (currently back in uk). Those with citizenship would need a Canadian passport each to enter by air but once got that yes you just turn up and go.

My oh and other 2 kids are on his twp as we were transferred with his work, however the plan was to sponsor for pr until we had to come back unexpectedly which has scuppered some plans somewhat but the new plan will be sponsor them for pr.

bert07

(Just seen extra bit about getting it from Canada - we had an immigration lawyer balls up which meant the kids were let in by a kind immigration man at the airport on 6 month holiday visas and we had to fix it all from within Canada, I wouldn't recommend doing it that way as it caused all sorts of additional issues).