I need help from any of the Canadian Freepers

myself | 11/14/05 | Pippin

[Pippin]

I was just on the phone talking to my mom, she was telling me about getting the forms filled out for a passport.

One of the things asked for was proof of Canadian citizenship

The only proof she has is her birth certificate. She doesn't even know if her parents were citizens.

Both my grandparents were born in Minnesota and migrated to what is now known as Saskatchewan in the early 1900's. My grandfather came to Canada in 1903. My grandmother earlier.

They were married in 1911.

Mom is sure her mother was a Canadian citizen by 1911, but we are not sure about grandpa because we can't find any papers.

I'll tell you the truth, I never in over 20 years of researching my mom's family once thought of citizenship records, oops!

my uncle says maybe just homesteading made you a citizen back in 1903 or marrying a Canadian citizen made you a citizen.

I was wondering if there is anywhere I should go to to find if any records exist and were they would be kept.

Mom assumes it's Ottowa since it would be Federal records.

[Pippin]

Please help!

[Pippin]

Can anyone help me with this?

[blau993]

In the US, I'd advise somebody to log on to the State Department's web site, where there is all kinds of info about proof of citizenship for passports. Absent that, I'd have the person get in touch with his or her congresscritter's office. They have staffers who love to answer questions like this for constituents. I would assume there are Canadian analogs to both. I assume your mother was born in Canada. Under US law, anyone born in the US is a citizen, but I don't know if the same holds true in Canada.

[Publius6961]

You forgot to mention who specifically needs the passport. One? More than one? Who?

You mentioned three people and they all have different circumstances.

[Pippin]

Thanks!

Mom was born in Canada.

But what's the addy for the State Department's website?

[blau993]

Don't you want the Canadian Passport Office? Google should find it for you pretty quickly.

[Pippin]

Oh, I'm sorry!

It's my mom who needs the passport.

My grandparents are deceased.

My mom neede proof of her Candian citizenship buit she neede to know the status of her father's citizenship so she can get proof of her citizenship other than her birth certificate.

[Pippin]

Yes!

Thanks! :o)

[blau993]

Here's the e-mail address of the Canadian Passport Office: http://www.ppt.gc.ca/

[Lambton]

If your mom was born in Canada then she is a Canadian citizen and for getting your passport a Canadian birth certificate is enough proof of you citizenship.

[Pippin]

Thanks!

[Pippin]

Thanks! :o)

[fanfan]

Help a Canadian FReeper ping!

:-P

[timsbella]

http://www.pptc.gc.ca/passports/vital_stats_e.asp

Vital statistics will help your mom get a fresh birth certificate. Info is listed by province with contact numbers.

[beaver fever]

Call the Passport Office and ask what documents are necessary to get a Canadian Passport.

When I got mine the only records I needed were my birth certificate and my SIN number. My parents citizenship was not an issue and yes if you were born in Canada you are automatically a Canadian citizen regardless of your parents country of origin. You're parents don't even have to have landed immigrant status.

My father was born in Canada but when he was six months old my grandmother returned to England where he grew up.

At the age of twenty he returned to Canada and got a job right away because he was legally a Canadian.

[Canadian Outrage]

It is true. If you were born here, your a Canadian citizen. Doesn't matter where your parents were born. Your birth certificate, if it's anything like mine, records where you were born, the name of your mother, the name of your father, the date and place of course, and the name of the doctor who delivered you. I don't know what year you were born but I was born in 1944.

[Squawk 8888]

If your mom was born on Canadian soil, she's a citizen. Assuming her birthplace is listed on her birth certificate then that's her proof of citizenship.

[mitchbert]

CDN Outrage is correct. If you have a Canuck birth certificate you are a Canadian citizen. That should be all you need to obtain a passport, but of course you will need additional photo ID as well as a guarantors (sp?) certificate signed by a laywer, doctor or professional engineer that has known you for 5 years (all requirements spelled out explicitly on the Canadian passport form).

[Clive]

Your mother should need only her birth certificate:

Plus she needs a person whose profession is one of those shown on a list of professions in the application form (such as doctor, lawyer, accountant, notary publid) to certify that he or she has known your mom for two years or more. That person will also have to certify her passport photo. As a notary public I have done this many times. On a few occasions the passport office had called me back to confirm what I had written.

Plus there is a new requirement that two other people (such as neighbors) have to certify that they have known her for more than two years. There are spaces on the application form for their names and signatures.

I found the people in the passoprt office in Scarborough to be very helpful in response to phone inquiries and when attending the office so if she is in doubt about anything she should phone or go to the local passport office. This is probably in the federal building in her city.

If there is a need to get the passport quickly, she should personally take it to the passport office where they can review it in her presence and take her fee payment. The passport should then be ready for her to pick up within a few days.

[Pippin]

Thanks.