dbd33

Y'all may recall my relative who was stuck in a flop house in the Dominican Republic due to being Canadian but unable to enter Canada due to having left without having a Canadian passport.

Well, another of my relatives is Canadian. This one has it in her head to visit Canada. She hasn't been here since the requirement to use a Canadian passport and, of course, doesn't have one. Is it still true that Canadians can cross the land border from the US without having a Canadian passport? Can she fly to Buffalo, be collected by me, and be driven into Canada?

TIA for any useful, or entertaining, comments.

Former Lancastrian

Yes providing she has other proof of Canadian citizenship ie birth certificate (caveat not prima facie proof of citizenship).

9.3 Determining Canadian citizenship

The following documents are acceptable proof of Canadian citizenship:

•  Canadian passport;
•  Certificate of Canadian Citizenship (both large and pocket- or wallet-sized; the
  
  smaller form now exists in two versions: a 44mm x 57mm (1 3/4” X 2 1/4”)
  
  photograph and a 35mm X 53mm (1 3/8" X 2 1/16") photograph);
•  Canadian Emergency Passport (a border services officer at the PIL will automatically
  
  refer for a secondary examination a person in possession of a Canadian Emergency Passport. Once the person’s identity has been verified, the border services officer at Immigration Secondary retains the passport and forwards it to
  
  Passport Program Integrity Branch
  Attention: Intelligence Division, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada
  7 Crémazie, 3rd floor
  Gatineau, Quebec G6V 6G6
•  Certificate of Naturalization issued before January 1, 1947;
•  Certificate of Registration of Birth Abroad issued between January 1, 1947, and
  
  February 14, 1977, inclusive; and

9.4 Establishing citizenship without documents

Canadian citizens returning to Canada by air usually have to provide proof of identity and citizenship to get on the flight. Canadian citizens arriving at land borders, however, will frequently be without satisfactory documentary proof of Canadian citizenship. In these cases, the border services officer should question the person until the border services officer is satisfied with the person’s claim of Canadian citizenship. Once the border services officer is satisfied that the person is a Canadian citizen, the person must be allowed to enter Canada without further delay.

https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ir.../enf04-eng.pdf

If born in Canada the passport travelling on normally will show place of birth which is also an indicator of Canadian citizenship.

A Canadian provincial birth certificate is a good indicator of Canadian citizenship but does not contain a photograph. The border services officer must therefore be satisfied that the person is the rightful holder.

dbd33

Thank you very much. She's going to approach the Canadian consulate where she is for advice but now there's a back up plan.

BritInParis

Why not just apply or renew her Canadian passport? When does she travel?

dbd33

She's planning to be in Canada in early October. I assume she will not be able to renew as the interval for that is quite short, I had to make a whole new application for mine after forgetting about it for a while. It's all a bit of a bother. If one has a Canadian passport the primary value of that passport is ease of access to the US, but the US deems lots of countries to be enemies so, in order to keep the Canadian passport free of stamps not welcome in the US, you can't use it anywhere else. Since it's only used for the US, and now Canada, it's very likely to languish in a drawer and expire. Is there any point in requiring it to enter Canada? I suspect not, I suppose it's one of those "America does it so we should too" things.

BritInParis

If you are Canadian then I suspect there is quite the incentive to entry your own country. I’d be interested to know which stamps in a Canadian passport would prevent you from entering the United States.

dbd33

We're Canadian in the sense of being eligible for the passport but it's not our own country. If, for example, one is born in Canada of Russian and Korean parents, one counts oneself Russian and Korean, one would only use a Canadian passport if required to do so. If one lived in, say, Australia, and visited Canada annually, one would not, until now, consider having a Canadian passport; hence the problem of the moment.

The first time the question of stamps arose was when the person in question was in high school and went to Cuba for the summer. At that time Americans were not allowed to fly to and from Cuba directly and so it seemed unnecessarily inflammatory to get a Cuban stamp. She went on another passport. She has since worked in a number of countries that might attract interest at the US border, Iraq, for example. It may not be the case that one cannot enter the US on a passport stamped from a country having people Trump doesn't like but, since that's volatile and includes most of the world, I think it prudent not to rock the boat.

scilly

Do you not have to have a Canadian passport to board a plane in another country to come back to Canada?

You can't get an ETA from the UK for example if you are a Canadian c itizen.

dbd33

Yes that is the new regulation that is causing the bother and expense. The person in question has come and gone dozens of times in the past without needing a Canadian passport. now she does need one.

dbd33

I'm told that the Canadian consulate in Bern routinely turns around passport applications within a week so, by going to Switzerland first, Buffalo is avoided. The traveler stranded in the Dominican should have thought of going there(!)

Siouxie

Urgent / Emergency passports - including when overseas:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration...-passport.html
https://travel.gc.ca/assistance/emba...806.1457029829
There's also a temporary passport option
C. Passports & citizenship

Passports & Citizenship SERVICE TIME¹ LOCATION²
All=All Canadian offices: Main=Full Service Diplomatic offices:
1. Passport Service (fees apply)
(a) Emergency
As required
All
(b) Temporary passport
As required
Main
https://travel.gc.ca/assistance/emer...ular/standards

It aint rocket science!

(Google's a wonderful thing)