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国籍
Citizenship
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Questions
- New Baby & Citizenship
- How to calculate residence (days spent ouside Canada)
- How to calculate residence (days spent in Canada before landing)
- Question on "3/4" Citizenship Act
Answers
Top
- New Baby & Citizenship
Q: I am a Canadian citizen living in NJ. I married a US
citizen and hold a green card which she sponsored.
We have our first baby due 7/2000. I want out child
to have the ability to be schooled in Canada without
having to pay foreign student fees, etc. Can
I get Canadian citizenship/a passport for the baby even
though it will born in the US?
A1: A child born to a Canadian citizen anywhere in the world
is a Canadian. You can apply for a citizenship certificate
and then for a Canadian passport on behalf of the child
if you wish. See: http://www.ci.gc.ca/english/coming/ecertif2.html
A2: Yes. Under paragraph 3(1)(b) of the Citizenship Act, a
child born to a Canadian parent (or parents) outside
Canada is a Canadian citizen.
The Canadian government, BTW, is currently considering a
wholesale rewrite of the citizenship law -- Bill C-16 -- but
even if this bill is enacted into law before your child
is born, he/she will still be a Canadian citizen, under
paragraph 4(1)(b) of the new law.
To document your child's Canadian citizenship, you should
contact a Canadian consulate or embassy and request an
application form for a "Certificate of Canadian Citizenship"
(the wallet-sized photo ID card commonly nicknamed a "citizenship
card"). You should do this as soon as possible after the
child's birth. Once he/she has a citizenship card, you can
(if you desire) use it to apply for a Canadian passport
for him/her -- or you can have him/her listed as a dependant
in your Canadian passport.
Since your child will be born in the US, he/she will also
be a US citizen by birth. His/her birth certificate will
suffice as proof of US citizenship; you can also get him/her
a US passport if you want.
Under both US and Canadian law, there is no problem with your
child having both citizenships by birth and throughout his/her
entire life. Some people may try to tell you that he/she
will have to choose one or the other citizenship when he/she
grows up, but this is not true under current US or Canadian law.
Top
- How to calculate residence (days spent ouside Canada)
Q: I need some clarification on how to count the number of
days spent outside Canada. For example, if I leave Canada
on Dec 6 and come back on Dec 9, do I have to deduct 2
or 4 days? Under the current Immigration Act, does time
spent outside on assignment by a Canadian company counts
towards residency? If so, do I have to list these absences
on the application form? BTW, how long does it take for
a bill to be enacted into law (at least)?
A: Contrary to what others have posted, if you are in Canada
for any portion of the 24 hour day, then you are considered
resident in Canada for that day. In your example you would
have been absent for 2 days (i.e. Dec. 7 & 8).
Residence under the Immigration Act is from the perspective of
maintaining your permanent resident status and it differs from the
concept of residence for the purpose of calculating your entitlement to
apply for Canadian citizenship under the Citizenship Act. There are
differing approaches taken by Citizenship judges and by the Federal
Court in interpreting the the concept of reisidence for citizenship
purposes. Some take a broad expansive approach while others take a
narrower, more technical approach.
You must list all days absent from Canada, irrespective of the reasons
for the absence. If you have a number of days outside Canada there is a
form which you can obtain from Citizenship Canada (not on the website)
entitled "Residency Questionnaire" which you should send with your
application. This form notes at the top that residence does not mean
actual physical residence.
It is difficult to say when the bill will become law. It was on the
order paper in the last session of Parliament but did not pass, so it
had to be re-intoduced. The Minister states that she intends to pass
the Bill through Parliament this time. If you want to look at the bill
and read commentary on it, see:
http://www.ci.gc.ca/english/pdffiles/pub/bill-c16.pdf
http://www.ci.gc.ca/english/pdffiles/pub/c16cls-e.pdf
http://www.ci.gc.ca/english/press/99/9937-pre.html
http://www.ci.gc.ca/english/about/policy/citact2_e.html
Top
- How to calculate residence (days spent in Canada before landing)
Q: I landed in Canada last year in November, 1998. Before I
landed in Canada, I was on a student visa for 4 years and
1 year on a work permit. I am just wondering whether I can
apply for Canadian citizenship at this time (November, 1999).
A: You are eligible for credit for the time that you legally
resided in Canada prior to establishing permanent resident
status, up to a maximum of one year. You would, therefore,
require an additional year of residence in order to be
considered eligible.
It needs to be understood, too, that any time spent in
Canada prior to "landing" is counted at a 50% rate.
That is, under the current rules, the original poster could
count his/her two years in Canada immediately before landing
as being equivalent to one year as a landed immigrant. As a
result, he/she would become eligible to apply for citizenship
two years after landing (i.e., in November of 2000).
Chances are fairly good, of course, that by the time the
original poster would become eligible to apply for citizenship,
the law may change. Parliament is currently considering a
government bill (Bill C-16) which would revise the residence
rules for citizenship. There are two major changes proposed
in this bill which could affect his/her situation:
- The new bill proposes that the residence requirement for citizenship
can be satisfied only through literal, physical presence in Canada.
Right now, at least some time an immigrant spends outside Canada (on
vacations, business trips, etc.) can still be counted toward the
three-year residence requirement. If Bill C-16 is enacted, this
will no longer be permitted under any circumstances whatsoever.
The new law proposes that any partial day in Canada will count as
a full day. Thus, if you take a trip abroad, you could count the
day you left and the day you returned.
- The new bill proposes to extend the "window" of time (counting
backwards from the date of application) during which time spent in
Canada can be counted. Currently, you can only go back four years.
If Bill C-16 is enacted, time spent in Canada up to six years ago
could be used to meet the residence (physical presence) requirement.
Note, though, that Bill C-16 will still count pre-landing time at a
50% rate -- and you will still only be able to shave a maximum of
one year off your time as a landed immigrant. Thus, you'll still
need a minimum of two full years' worth of days spent physically in
Canada after landing before you can apply for citizenship. However,
assuming you can tally up at least a full two years (730 days) of
your student visa or work permit time during which you were physically
in Canada (as opposed to foreign trips), you would still be
able to subtract 365 days from your post-landing requirement, and
thus become eligible to apply as soon as you had spent at least 730
days of physical presence in Canada as a landed immigrant.
Bill C-16 has not yet become law -- and no one knows for sure exactly
when (or even whether) it will become law -- but I would think it is
safe to assume that it will eventually become law. Anyone who has not
yet applied for citizenship by the time Bill C-16 comes into force will
have to qualify under the new rules.
Top
- Question on "3/4" Citizenship Act
Q: "3 years of residence within the past 4 years"
Exactly what does this statement mean?
Does it mean that if once I have accumulated a total
of 3 years (1095 days) of residence because say I stayed
put in Canada and never physically left the country at
any time, then at the end of this 3 year period I STILL
HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER YEAR before I can step up to the
plate and attempt to acquire citizenship status?
A: No. If you enter Canada as a landed immigrant, and you do not
leave at all for three years, you can apply as soon as you completed
those three years.
The three years of residence within the past four years simply means
that only time residing in Canada within the past four years can be
counted. Time spent in Canada prior to four years ago cannot
be counted. Under the current citizenship law, time spent as a
landed immigrant counts fully, and time spent in Canada in any
other status counts half.
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