Used to be, you were a Canadian if a parent was Canadian. Now, you’re a Canadian if anyone in your direct line of descent was a Canadian.
So…MrsWyoming is now a Canadian (her maternal grandmother was born in Novia Scotia), and so are my two daughters. We’ve talked for years about moving to Canada; this makes it much easier, particularly since I’m now retired and won’t have to get a work visa of any kind. I like Vancouver…
So they are Canadian but not “officially” Canadian? Would they have to apply for citizenship and this law just makes it easier? Wonder what the tax implications would be for dual citizenship. Definitely more complicated.
Nope. Only gets (slightly) complicated if you have Canadian-sourced income.
You don’t even have to file a Canadian tax return (except maybe once, and write “zero” on the income line).
Under Canadian law, they ARE Canadian by means of birthright. If they submit copies of birth certificates showing the lineage, they will receive a piece of paper certifying it. With that in hand, they can get passports.
Wow.
So, sometime in the late 1850’s a young ancestress of mine gave birth in the back of a cart going “as fast as we prayerfully dared” on the ancient north-south aboriginal track that became Canadian Hwy 2 and USA Hwy 89, somewhere between what is now Cardston Alberta and what is now Glacier National Park, and with Chief Mountain “in view”.
That baby was grandmother to my paternal grandmother. Documentation in the form of a diary and letters is in the Oregon Trail archives in Oregon, and the mad lurch for the unsurveyed border is family legend. The parents suddenly realized that they could not remember with certainty the rules of citizenship, and wanted my ancestress to be USAian.
Maybe I should go for it?
Good luck documenting that paper trail! Would be a fun project, if nothing else.
In time, MrsWyoming and WyomingKids will have Canadian passports in their pockets.