Aug 9, 2011
I am Canadian \ Je suis Canadien
US law apparently does not mention dual nationality, and hence implicitly allows dual citizenship with every country in the world (everything else equal). However, if one becomes a foreign citizen (or serves in a foreign military, etc) with the intention of relinquishing US citizenship, then one may indeed lose it. I have been a happy US citizen since birth (in glorious california!) and have no intention of giving it up.
Meanwhile Canada, where my mother was born, for many years did not allow dual citizenship with the US (or elsewhere, I presume — but maybe they just don’t like yanks?). Later that law was changed… but too late for my mom, who had moved to the US as a child with her family. However, the law was changed again in 2009, restoring her canadian citizenship and extending it to me and my siblings by first generation descent. So this means that although I was not a canadian citizen for the first 30+ years of my life, I have now been a canadian citizen retroactively since birth; I think this is the closest I’ll ever get to time travel! See this fabulous video to find out what happens when one day you wake up canadian…
Of course being a citizen is one thing and proving it is another. Armed with my mom’s birth certificate (and US naturalization certificate), as well as my own birth certificate and various forms and photographs, I headed down to the canadian consulate in boston at the end of february. They copied everything and said I could expect my citizenship “certificate” (actually a card, as you can see above) in 8-12 months. Obviously they are good psychologists and were setting low expectations, because it just arrived. Next step is to apply for a passport, which supposedly only takes a month or so.
Why do I want all this, other than getting to feel more cosmopolitan? Or getting to feel like a spy, with an extra passport stashed beneath the floorboards? Well, I guess the guaranteed health care is fairly appealing. And then there’s the chance of adding to my country list with such notables as cuba, libya, iran, iraq, and so on. Or perhaps more practically, using one passport for israel and one for lebanon and friends (guess which one for which??). But mostly it’s the whole pretending to be a spy thing. Plus I now have a queen of my very own – hi queen! So when do I get knighted?
Hi Julian,
I had a chat with your mom at the Lazy Daisy this morning while I was with my daughter Rose Bloomfield. We talked about this and that. While talking about your interest in running, which is an important part of my life, I wondered if you run heel-toe or toe-heel and how that may vary over long distance and surfaces. I’m interested in what you think and what is your practice. Please let me know if you have a moment.
Cheers,
Greg
For the record, I would just like to note that as of last week you could not:
1. Name the Prime Minister
2. Identify the number of provinces and territories
3. Sing the anthem in any one of the national languages
4. Tell me the ingredients for poutine
To be fair, I didn’t actually ask you number 4, but my faith in you is pretty low.
There are some Canadian points you need to earn, and I hereby self-nominate myself to be the arbiter of your Canadianity. You just got one point if you recognized that is not a real word. 99 to go.
1. Stephen Harper (I didn’t google this, although I did happen to notice it in a newspaper article recently so we’ll see how long the information sticks)
I believe your additional question last week was to describe any of the provincial flags or the previous national flag, both of which are silly questions.
2. Hmmm… 12 or so? Didn’t they just change the name of the northwest territories to nunavut or something like that?
3. I believe its title is “Oh Canada” but it’s true that the words are beyond me. Mais je parle un peut de francais – combien de “points canada” pour ca?
4. Probably another word that you just made up
In terms of arbiting, you are possibly in more luck than you could ever imagine. It turns out that to get a passport, I need the approval of a “guarantor”: a canadian citizen with a valid passport who has known me for at least two years and can basically confirm my identity (name, physical description, occupation, place of residence, etc). Unfortunately the rules forbid me from paying you to do this, so you’d have to be willing to volunteer. Assuming you are, how many points am I going to need to pass?
God save the queen!
I hope my certificate is equally fast in arriving – sent on Canada Day, and still waiting, but I’m optimistic, and can’t wait for it to arrive.
In preparation to be a good “new” Canadian, I have read several books, the best of which was, believe it or not, Canadian History for Dummies by Will Ferguson. He’s a comedic author, and it makes for a very easy read, and now I can answer all sorts of questions about Canada, so I feel less….well, dumb! =)