Canada announces implementation of new Citizenship Act to grant or restore citizenship to lost Canadians

The Department of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) has announced to implement the pending changes in country’s existing Citizenship laws by or before April 17, 2009.

These amendments in Canada’s citizenship laws were proposed by the previous Conservative government at least a year earlier to retroactively grant or restore citizenship to those who have lost or never had Canadian citizenship because of several obscure provisions in existing and former legislation. These proposed amendments, or Bill C-37, were formally enacted by Canadian Parliament on April 16, 2008.

The need to overhaul country’s existing citizenship laws was first arose just after the Lebanon evacuation crisis in 2006 and following the introduction of US travel rule (WHTI) in the beginning of 2007, when many of the Canadians who were applying for passports for the first time found out that they were unknowingly stripped of their citizenship. Commonly knows as "Lost Canadians", these people either had their citizenship denied or unknowingly allowed to expire due to several little-known particularities in Citizenship Act, which was last replaced in 1977 after its introduction in 1947. The obscure provisions under the Citizenship Act were installed in 1977 to "safeguard the value of citizenship," but only began to potentially affect people as of February 15, 2005.

After its implementation, the new Citizenship Act will restore citizenship to the (a) people who became citizens when the first Citizenship Act took effect on January 1, 1947, including people born in Canada prior to 1947, war brides, and other British subjects who had lived in Canada for at least five years before 1947 and who then lost their citizenship; (b) people who were born in Canada or who became Canadian citizens on or after January 1, 1947, and who then lost their citizenship; and (c) people who were born outside Canada, on or after January 1, 1947, in the first generation born abroad, to a parent who was a Canadian citizen at the time of the birth.

The amended Citizenship Act will also grant citizenship to people who did not take the steps necessary to become citizens and who were born outside Canada on or after January 1, 1947, in the first generation born abroad, to a parent who was a Canadian citizen at the time of the birth.

However, the new Citizenship Act will not restore or grant citizenship to the (a) people who did not become citizens when the first Citizenship Act took effect on January 1, 1947; (b) people born in Canada to a foreign diplomat; (c) people who were born outside Canada to a Canadian parent, who are not already citizens or who lost their citizenship in the past, and who were born in the second or subsequent generation abroad; (d) people who were born outside Canada to a Canadian parent, in the second or subsequent generation born abroad, and who lost their citizenship because they did not take the steps needed to retain their citizenship; (e) people who renounced their citizenship as adults with the Canadian government; and (f) people whose citizenship was revoked by the government because it was obtained by fraud.

The new Citizenship Act will also change the rules for people born outside of the Canada. Individuals born outside Canada to a parent who was a Canadian citizen at the time of the birth will only be Canadians at birth if (a) the parent was born in Canada; or (b) the parent became a Canadian citizen through the process of naturalization. This means that children born in another country after the new law comes into effect will not be a Canadian citizens by birth if they were born outside Canada to a Canadian parent who was also born outside Canada to a Canadian parent.

This limitation will also apply to foreign-born individuals adopted by a Canadian parent.

There are, however, exceptions to these rules. The limitation will not apply to a child born or adopted abroad in the second or subsequent generation if, at the time of the child's birth or adoption, their Canadian parent is working outside Canada for the Canadian government or a Canadian province or serving outside Canada with the Canadian forces.

The government has no estimate on the number of people who will take advantage of this legislation after it becomes law, but it has been estimated that new legislation should take care of 95 per cent of those people who either lost their citizenship or shouldn't have, or who never had it in the first place but should have, while others will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.