Pulaski

Isn't it like perpetually being a guest in someone else's home?

Oink

Fanny batter!

BristolUK

No.

Teaandtoday5

Thanks to Justin's failure to fulfill another election promise (probably, I didn't check too closely, since I didn't get a vote) I have to wait until next year to apply for citizenship. I always assumed I would, if only to get past the disenfranchisement issue, but the closer I get the more ambivalent I feel. I can't imagine ever feeling 'Canadian ', but I currently don't vote anywhere, which seems wrong. Not least since everyone else is making such a hash of it. So should I be a citizen when I will never really be Canadian?

DandNHill

Call yourself a Canadian passport holder rather than a citizen?

Pulaski

Yeah, I'm with you there - I don't think I will ever really feel American though I have been a citizen since 2008, and in fact I still feel like a fish out of water. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy here and don't ever expect to return to the UK to live, but I often feel like I am living on a film set, acting things out, or maybe like a dream, and wondering when I will wake up.

A lot of this has to do with my accent, which attracted comments pretty much every week, often two or three times. Not that I mind, but it is odd when I have lived here 14 years and people seem to think I have just arrived! I usually explain that my accent hasn't changed much since I left Sheffield when I was eight years old, so I don't expect it ever now will.

scrubbedexpat091

Thats pretty much why I dont have Canadian citizenship.

The cost.

not2old

This thread title

I would be at the front of the line to get citizenship of the country that I moved to & settled with my PR, where I live, work & play, with or without kids. It just seems to be the right thing to do if the centre of life is in that country. But that's my opinion not shared by others.

For the reason I want to keep all my options open, to be able to have the flexibility to come & go, ping pong if necessary, travel to other countries where my place of birth nationality could be seen as a problem for some.

As we've seen of late with the travel issues for folks going in & out of the USA targeting certain nationalities or those that have 'residence card' issues. Other countries also start to tighten up.

Case in point the edjit in the link in the OP going for a vacation to the US

Now with the uncertainty of Brexit, there could end up being issues for folks from certain countries living in the UK or Brits living in the EU, everything is up in the air.

And with all the difficulty of 'spousal sponsorship' to Canada, the UK & USA, its appears to get more difficult, maybe I'm way off base.

Emigrating isn't as easy today either as it was years ago

So, here we are me & mine at age 70 as multiple passport holders, we can be anywhere any time if we choose to do so. But who cares, we are who we are that decided long ago that this was what we wanted.

My only regret (yes I have one) is that we should have stayed long enough in OZ or NZ to get one of those citizenships.

I am also of the opinion that the country that one lives in, that all of their worldly goods & assets should be in that country & not spread across the globe.

I am not in favour of having property (owned or rental) in a country outside of where I reside.

Even though I was born in the UK, hold a British passport 'I am Canadian' & proud of it & when anyone outside my home asks 'where are you from cos you have a strange accent' - I respond with 'I am a Canadian' - where are you from'?


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BristolUK

All those things are fair enough and personal.

I just don't see "settled...where I live, work & play, with or without kids...centre of life is in that country" being any different with citizenship instead of PR.

If there was a political choice here then I'd want to vote, but I think that right should be attached to PR and not just citizenship.

Pulaski

If asked where I am from I sometimes give the name of the town where I live (if I am in NC, but not in the area where I live), or North Carolina (if I am elsewhere in the US), .... and people always laugh! Of course being British, almost everything I say sounds sarcastic.

dbd33

I've had a citizenship card and, on and off, a passport, since 1985. I'm not attached to Canada, I don't vote, I don't much follow politics here. I got the passport because I was working in the US and having it made the cross border commute easier.

My then wife and children are all citizens and all let their Canadian passports lapse so, like me, they had to apply for new ones in the last couple of months. We all take a dim view of that cash grab; "if you wouldn't use a Canadian passport outside of Canada, why should you have to use it to come to Canada?" we mutter, bitterly. (Note that despite living in four locations in three different countries we all knew we now needed Canadian passports and not just because we're all related to the chap stuck in the Dominican).

Dorothy

I have lived in Australia for nearly 11 years and had citizenship for 8. I never have and never will call myself Australian. When asked where I'm from I either answer "Canada" or "I live in South Geraldton", depending on who's asking and in what context.

DandNHill

We will get citizenship hopefully later this year. We haven't yet applied but we're eligible.
The reasoning is because we live here and so it's the logical final step in our immigration journey.
We also plan on spending the last couple of years of our working lives in the Caribbean. Because of hubbys line of work we have a few options. Having citizenship means we don't need to worry about staying a little longer if we wish to do so. Our adult kids will of course remain in Canada so there's no way I would risk losing my PR and not be able to come back to Canada after our Caribbean stint.

Hurlabrick

I find the subject of 'citizenship' (your passport, possibly also domicile etc.) and 'nationality' (to me what you call yourself / who you think you are) to be fascinating.


My favourite example is:


American father and British mother
Born and raised in China for first 9 years
Educated in Britain for 8 years
University in US for 2 years
Lived in Canada for 1 year (trained for the RCAF)
Lived in Britain for 1 year


....If you haven't tumbled, I am talking about John Gillespie Magee - the author of the poem 'High Flight' who was killed flying for the RCAF in 1941. I wonder what nationality he thought he was!

dbd33

I haven't heard of him but his history is typical of that of my children's contemporaries so I know how the question is answered. "My Mum's from x, my Dad's from y, we lived in z until we moved here. I suppose I'm Canadian.". Ambivalence is usual. The government might reasonably claim Toronto to be a triumph of multiculturalism but it rests on a foundation of bemusement rather than one of affirmative support. (I like that, btw.)