planningahead wrote:My parents were both born and raised in Canada. They both served in WWII, met afterwards, married, and moved to the States, where I was born in 1952. They registered my birth with the Canadian Consulate in New Orleans, and I have the Registration Certificate that was provided back to them.
My parents never became US citizens. They filed as aliens each year, and upon retirement, they returned to Canada to live. My aunts, uncles, and cousins (both sides of my family) reside in Canada.
I have a US passport, and have never otherwise made any statement or declaration of US citizenship.
Is there any possibility that I may be able to join my family in Canada with Canadian citizenship status?
Yes, it sounds to me like the new law will "automatically" make you a Canadian citizen on or before April 17, 2009. You won't need to apply for citizenship, but you WILL need to apply for a proof of citizenship certificate, which will likely take another 5 months of processing time after the new law takes effect.
In that application, you will need to prove at least one of your parents was a Canadian citizen at any time between Jan 1 1947 and your birth. They might want you to prove that by simply proving one of your parents became a citizen on Jan 1 1947 when that old 1947 law took effect. I anticipate sufficient proof will be: your birth cert identifying your parent, your parent's birth cert proving birth in Canada, proof that the parent held "British subject" status on Jan 1 1947. Did your parents still live in Canada on Jan 1 1947? Or did they move to USA before that date? Might need to prove that moving date, not sure.
I'm not sure how rigorous they will be about requiring proof of the British subject status part, but they might be more rigorous if your parents are not Caucasian or do not have English-sounding names.
You said your parents served in WWII. You may not qualify above if they served in non-Canadian forces against Canada in WWII. Some Canadians with German ancestry made that difficult choice back in WWII.
You will be a dual citizen of both USA and Canada.
Official info at
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenshi ... enship.asp
http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/bills_ls.a ... etroactive
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