New Canadian citizenship rules impact children of Expats
If you are Canadian and gave birth or planning to give birth to any of your children while living overseas, please read this and pass the link along to any of your Canadian friends who did likewise.
New citizenship rules which go into effect April 17th of this year from Citizenship and Immigration Canada are now going to have their children wondering what nationality they are.
Read these new rules carefully. To help you along, here is a key phrase you should look for in the section about ‘Persons born or adopted outside of Canada’ after the new rules go into effect:
“This means that children born in another country after the new law comes into effect will not be Canadian citizens by birth if they were born outside Canada to a Canadian parent who was also born outside Canada to a Canadian parent.”
Government bafflegab to be sure but essentially, it means that if you had your child abroad and gave him/her your Canadian citizenship, after April 17th, that same child cannot give their children the same Canadian citizenship unless they are born in Canada (and a few other rules thrown in for good measure). Given that a high percentage of children of expats are born abroad and these kids have a propensity for living and working abroad in adulthood, there’s a pretty good chance your grandchildren or your children (if you are an Expat Kid reading this) will also be born outside of Canada.
The president of Expat Expert, Robin Pascoe and I have been working together to get as much clarity as possible on these changes since I was alerted via an email by Valerie Bolduc of Ottawa. She had been reading an article published yesterday about these new complex citizenship laws in the Toronto Globe and Mail. Now, we are all trying to reach as many Canadians, Canadian clubs and chambers as possible.
Also unclear from the get-go (besides that convoluted language above) are the exemptions. It says in the rules that children of Canadian diplomats, military or any other personnel of the Canadian government born abroad are exempt. But when I called Ottawa yesterday to get some answers, I was told that even diplomatic families will not be immune if one of the spouses was born outside of Canada. If this is indeed true (they are so confused it would seem in Ottawa) it would mean that a Canadian foreign service officer, a Canadian ambassador, indeed anyone who served Canada abroad but chose to marry a non-Canadian, may not have Canadian grandchildren!
So, what can you do?
For starters, send this link onto everyone you know who is Canadian with children born abroad or thinking about it. Don’t forget, they may even be back living in Canada now. It doesn’t matter. Help educate other Canadians and stress the urgency for action of clarity.
Second, watch for updates as Ms. Pascoe and I are both on the case and engaging as many people as possible to gather information including the Canadian Employee Relocation Council. A power point presentation illustrating the fallout of this Byzantine movement by the government has been assembled by us and is available to view through this link.
Third, and most important: Write to the Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, right now and demand clarity and answers. His e-mail address is Minister@cic.gc.ca and the mailing address is The Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C.,M.P, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1. Remember this goes into affect on April 17th so write to him now! Time is of the essence.
I explain in the presentation why the government is changing the existing laws, but it is clear, that innocent fish are being caught in a net designed to close loopholes. More to come a we know it, but please, act now.
Here’s a reply from my parents M.P. First they wrote, then spoke with him about the “2nd generation” clause denying citizenship to those born abroad to Canadians such as my 3 kids. The adoptive parents are clearly having more of an effect to generate this standard response. Is The Canadian Expat connecting with those lobbying for the foreign born adopted so we add strength in numbers to have Bill C-37 stopped? thanks, Bryan
Dear Bryan Day,
Thank you for your email regarding Bill C-37.
The government’s goal behind this Bill was to strengthen Canadian citizenship. We will not allow Canadian citizenship to be passed on endlessly from generation to generation by people living abroad who have no meaningful connection to Canada. Bill C-37 was an attempt to accomplish this, as well as resolve the issue of “Lost Canadians.” The legislation was studied extensively, including clause-by-clause in a Liberal-dominated Senate committee, and passed Parliament with the unanimous support of opposition parties. Since C-37 became law, some concerns have been raised, such as the effect of the legislation on adopted children who were born abroad. Minister Kenney is aware of these concerns, and is seized of the matter. Last week, he asked his officials to review the effect of the legislation. Minister Kenney has stressed to his officials the importance, in conducting this review, of examining the issue from the perspective of individuals who may be affected.
Our government is deeply committed to the twin goals of strengthening Canadian citizenship as well as ensuring that our laws make no distinction between Canadian children, whether they were adopted from abroad or not. In addition to reviewing the effects of the legislation, Citizenship and Immigration Canada officials will soon be revising the web materials on the Immigration Canada website to better explain the rules using more plain language and less legal jargon. We will also be initiating a wide outreach campaign with different stakeholders–including organisations that help parents adopt children from abroad–to better explain the purpose, as well as the effect, of the law.
Again, thank you for taking the time to write me.
Sincerely,
Joe Preston, Member of Parliament
Elgin-Middlesex-London
2 - 24 First Avenue
St. Thomas, Ontario N5R 4M5
Telephone: (519) 637-2255
Toll-Free: 1-866-404-0406
Fax: (519) 637-3358
Hi Bryan,
I’m an adoptive parent. To answer your question, I am not aware of any concerted effort from the adoption community speaking with the expat community. Other than my personal attempts at alerting the expat community, I think that we are working independently - but, I recently found the online petition sponsored by this association and I have posted it on all the adoption boards I belong to, and on my facebook page.
Recently, adoptive parents returning to Ontario with their newly adoptive children are being denied the 3 month exemption from OHIP. This issue is related to the citizenship issue (yet the logic behind the denial is pretty nebulous). One family has hired a lawyer - we’ll see what happens. I also hear there may be a class action lawsuit in the works for adoptive families who have obtained the direct citizenship route for their children, it is the kind of citizenship born abroad children get through their Canadian parents. This citizenship is a ‘lesser’ citizenship because these children, should they give birth abroad, won’t be able to pass their Canadian citizenship to their own children.
The letter sent to you is extremely frustrating because it indicates to me that they want to convince us (the adoption community and Canadian expats) that this new rule is OK.
I think there needs to be another full on campaign to tell the government that there is no way we want to let this happen. It is completely unacceptable. They are not “protecting” the value of Canadian citizenship, they are mucking things up - period.
I was reading some of the comments on the online petition - maybe we need to go on Youtube, create a yahoo group that will connect our communities. I’ll come back here to post again.
Thanks,
Valérie
Valérie, http://www.amendc37.ca will be accessible in the next day or two. Please log in to add your comments and further the discussion on how to link concerned expats and adoptive parents. There are a number of different ideas being considered and I agree we should be providing as many links to the different groups with common interests as possible Bryan
Protecting the citizenship?? I think they missing the point completely. I can see what they are after and I do agree that citizenship shouldn’t be “passed on endlessly for generation after generation to people with no meaningful connection to Canada”. But is the birth place the only meaningful connection?? Should birth place really be the determining factor?
I know many countries have laws regarding how to pass on citizenship to children born abroad but they seem to differ from the canadian one in a very important way. For instance Sweden (we live here so it’s an easy example to me) - “To avoid losing your Swedish citizenship if you were born and are still living abroad, you can apply to keep it. You must do so before the age of 22. You do not need to make an application if you have lived in Sweden during any period of your life or if you visit Sweden regularly.
If you are one of the first generation born abroad, your application will be granted. Subsequent generations born abroad may also be allowed to keep their Swedish citizenship as long as they have not completely severed their ties with Sweden.” (from the Swedish migration board website).
I know the US has similar rules were you need to have lived in the US for a certain number of years to be able to pass along citizenship to a child born abroad.
Yet with this new canadian law all they seem to care about is birth place. Born outside Canada but grew up in Canada - you are still a 2nd class citizen. Not right, not at all.
As a side note I can say that I have british citizenship through my father. He was born in England but moved to Canada when 3 years old. I myself have never set foot on british soil but still have a british passport. I will not be able to pass on british citizenship to my kids and I have no problem with that since I have no ties to the country.
I concur with SweCan. In the course of being obsessed about “no meaningful connection” cases, the government has completely missed–or deliberately ignored–the impact of C-37 on the opposite end of the spectrum, multi-generation Canadians who have reason to be offshore during their child-bearing years.
My daughter is a 5th-generation Canadian that happens to have been born offshore. As a result of C-37, she has been stripped of the right to pass on Canadian citizenship status to her children (if those children are born in Canada, they will be Canadian anyway, so she now has zero influence on the outcome). She now has fewer rights, in terms of transmission of citizenship, than a newly-naturalized citizen with no previous connection to the country whatsoever.
The bizarre impact of this ill-conceived law is that my daughter would theoretically be better off to repudiate her birthright Canadian citizenship, and then reapply for it through family sponsorship.
Absolutely nuts.
I wish to state that it APALLING that you should even THINK of stripping Canadian Children of their rights to pass on Canadian Citizenship to their children.
This is UNACCEPTABLE and something I will personally fight to the bitter end.
I moved to Russia and married a Russian lady. I should not be punished for utilizing my FREEDOM to live where I choose, nor should our son be punished by the Canadian government for simply being born abroad.
Our son, Michael Milette is every bit as much a Canadian as I am, and as my father before me, and grandfather and great grandfather before him.
My father served in world war 2 for Canada. I served 10 years in the Canadian Armed Forces. Our family has PROVEN its loyalty to Canada and has performed great service to the country under the most difficult of conditions.
Michael speaks English natively, reads and writes in English, has a Canadian sense of humour and is, in every respect, as much a Canadian as anyone in Ottawa.
He speaks Russian, Canadian and – although only 7 years old, next year will start learning French and then in the 10th grade German.
Perhaps he will attend a Canadian University, perhaps he will work for the Canadian Government – who knows? His Canadian passport gives him that RIGHT.
What must be noted is the he IS CANADIAN. He has Canadian citizenship, he has a Canadian Passport and is every bit as much a Canadian as anyone else.
He is in NO WAY any kind of ’second class citizen’. None of these lousy burocrats has the right to STRIP HIM OF HIS RIGHTS to have Canadian Children.
This law is WRONG and MUST BE REVERSED. It hurts Canadians who have chosen to live abroad. It hurts their children, through no fault of their own. It hurts Canada by robbing it of the benefits of diversity.
Marty R. Milette
Jan 29th, 2009 at %0:%Jan %p
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