When Canadians travel to China to get their child and they become a Forever Family, it seems that the Canadian government does not believe that the child should automatically become a Canadian Citizen.
When Americans adopt from China, their child is a citizen before they even leave China.
For Canadians, we must APPLY for our child to become a Canadian citizen and this can take upwards of a year for the paperwork to be finalized. On top of this, if the citizenship is denied (can you imagine) there is NO right of appeal through Immigration Canada - we must go through the courts.
NOW I have just read on the Star that second-generation Canadians born outside of Canada must re-register for their citizenship before their 28th birthday. I REALLY hope that I have misinterpreted this article – but even if I have, our children still have to apply for citizenship in the first place.
I am FURIOUS...our children – who will have reminders EVERYDAY that they were not born to us are going to have to re-register for their “permanent” citizenship – that doesn’t seem so permanent!!
I can tell you that I am sure there is going to be a Federal election before the end of the year and I will CERTAINLY be bringing my issues to our MP (Member of Parliament for those who don’t know). I am going to want to know what they are going to do for us and our family to be.
I seriously think that the Immigration law in this country needs to be reviewed!!!
If I have made any major mistakes in my reporting, please let me know. This is based on the research that Mark and I have done and I would don’t want to have an error in what we have reported here.
11 comments:
I'm livid for you! What an awful potential situation! I sure hope things turn out OK for everyone. I look forward to reading the updates!
Yikes! Joel and I received our immigration papers just before Christmas. Wait until you see these forms. They are crazy. I don't even know how to answer half the questions on them. :(
I hear you, it's riduclous! If a Canadian has a biological child that child is granted citizenship right away while a legally adopted child has to wait for citizenship. There's talk of changes in the works but it's not automatic citizenship.
Here's some more info:
http://www.familyhelper.net/news/060504cit.html
I haven't looked at the forms yet either...I just knew there were a zillion of them!
I was just about to ask a stupid question and caught myself.
The question was: what would be the logic in that? But, with any government, who says logic figures in at all!
I hear ya. It is a fight that has been going on for a while. There is a woman leading the charge of sorts on another Yahoo group: canadiansadoptingfromchina@yahoogroups.com
It is a pisser but until the govt gets it's head out of it's butt, that is what we are forced to do. There was supposed to be a new law but what happened is that the law they are proposing is worse then what there is now. The new law could technically deny our a. child citizenship. It is stupid to a level of stupidity I have never seen.
Keep smilin!
Wow, I am livid for you too! Adoption should have its own special rules as far as citizenship. I imagine the laws were written with other types of immigration in mind, and no one ever considered how it would affect adoptive families. It's amazing in how many ways adoption is never considered in any kind of public life - forms, laws,schools, etc. Everybody needs to get with the program that families are formed in many ways.
I'm hoping that automatic citizenship will be in place by the time we come home from China. But then again, I was hoping that the last time and it wasn't to be. This stinks and just means more paperwork for us to fill out and more $ to leave our pockets.
That is terrible! I too am livid. Why would Canada do this? Let's just hope that they make some changes, I must admit I am a little worried now, especially as I wont be living in the country...
p.s. I posted a reply to your comment under comments on my blog.
Ditto . . . it's ridiculous!
k
It stinks for sure although I'm not sure it affects us. (Don't want that to sound trite or uncaring.)
How I understand it is that it affects children born to Canadian parents while they are living outside Canada. For example, friends of mine are missionaries in the Philippines. Their youngest son was born in the Philippines and granted automatic Canadian citizenship. But, it sounds like he has to apply for permanent citizenship before his 28th birthday.
As I understand it, once our children are Canadian citizens they always will be.
Part of me is a little, teeny, tiny bit glad they've discovered this loophole as they said it was discovered when they were looking into changes for the citizenship process. Could they possibly be looking into automatic permanent citizenship?
This reminds me that I have to get my butt in gear and work on the immigration paperwork. I put it off for months hoping that automatic citizenship might be granted by the time Hannah comes home but I'm no longer holding my breath. Hmmm...wonder if I should begin my Old Age Pension paperwork at the same time as they might occur together! LOL!!!
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