Need Help

I am a canadian citizen, how can I give up the citizenship of my former
country. Do I have to affirm on an oath in front of a lawyer that I am
giving up my citizenship of previous country and mail a notorized copy of it
along with my previous passport/identifications to Embassy of that country.
I was told by CIC agent that they don't have any such process and I have to
contact my Embassy of previous country. I did called them but haven't yet
received a proper response they say that CIC handles all such requests.

Can you please provide us proper guidelines in this regard.

Your advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Rich Wales

"Need Help" wrote:

> I am a Canadian citizen. How can I give up the
> citizenship of my former country?

This depends 100% on the laws of your former country.

Some countries simply do not permit dual citizenship and will
automatically revoke your citizenship if you become a citizen of
another country -- regardless of whether you ask to have your old
citizenship revoked, or even if you insist that you would prefer
to keep both citizenships.

Some other countries require that you file a special application
of THEIR own making with THEIR own officials. Anything you might
try to say to officials, lawyers, etc. in any other country about
your original citizenship will simply be disregarded.

And there are even some countries which simply do not have any
provision in their laws for giving up citizenship at all -- or
which make renunciation of citizenship so difficult or expensive
that, for all practical purposes, it just can't be done.

So, the $64,000 question is, what country are you originally from?

> Do I have to affirm on an oath in front of a lawyer
> that I am giving up my citizenship of previous country
> and mail a notarized copy of it along with my previous
> passport/identifications to Embassy of that country?

This might or might not work, depending on the country involved.
You should definitely assume this will NOT work (and that it will
be a total waste of your time and money), UNLESS you can somehow
manage to get firm assurances from competent officials of your
old country saying that it will work.

> I was told by CIC agent that they don't have any such
> process and I have to contact my Embassy of previous
> country.

That's right. It's not an issue of Canadian law at all; it's a
matter to be settled under the laws of the other country.

In the final analysis, each country is the sole judge of whether
or not a given individual is one of its citizens. Neither
Canada nor any other country (other than your former country)
has any ability to say that you are or are not a citizen of your
former country.

> I did call them but haven't yet received a proper
> response they say that CIC handles all such requests.

That doesn't make any sense at all. Are you saying that the
people at the embassy of your former country told you that
renouncing your old citizenship is a matter for Canadian
officials to handle? Are you sure they didn't misunderstand
you and think you were saying you wanted to give up your
Canadian citizenship instead of your old citizenship?

Again, if your old country has any provisions at all in its
laws for giving up citizenship, this would be an issue to be
dealt with between you and officials of your old country.
Everything depends on which country you are originally from
and on what its laws (not Canada's laws) say on the subject.

Rich Wales [email protected]
http://www.richw.org
*NOTE: I've lived in both Canada and the US and have dual citizenship.
*DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, professional immigration consultant,
or consular officer. My comments are for discussion purposes only and
are not intended to be relied upon as legal or professional advice.