# Unable to obtain my certificate of citizenship



## jimbo20000 (Aug 24, 2015)

Thanks in advance for any assistance and direction. I am a 60-year old US citizen/Resident, and would like to retire in several years to Canada. My mother immigrated as an infant from Scotland to Canada in 1918, and became a Canadian Citizen (I think as a "landed immigrant"-her father was Canadian). She is deceased. I was born in 1955 in the US while she was still a Canadian citizen, but I do not have a copy of her certificate. I DO have other documents supporting her citizenship, (such as a 1950's era official letter from Canada Immigration acknowledging her lost Canadian passport, and records of her residence and business ownership in Canada from the 1940's and 1950's, as well as divorce papers from a Canadian court.) Although I forwarded notarized copies of all these documents to CIC, they did not accept them as adequate evidence. I first applied to CIC for MY certificate, and they requested my mother's proof of Canadian citizenship. I applied for HER proof of citizenship, and they did not find her in their records. So, I'm at an impasse. 
How do I obtain assistance with a more comprehensive record search, or if that fails, use existent documents to prove her citizenship? Likewise, is it just time to give up on this dream and realize the technical issues cannot be overcome.
Thank you!


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## scrappygal (Sep 22, 2015)

Is there a Canadian Consulate near where you live? I went there to apply for Canadian citizenship for my children, they may be of some assistance.


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## colchar (Oct 25, 2011)

jimbo20000 said:


> Thanks in advance for any assistance and direction. I am a 60-year old US citizen/Resident, and would like to retire in several years to Canada. My mother immigrated as an infant from Scotland to Canada in 1918, and became a Canadian Citizen (I think as a "landed immigrant"-her father was Canadian). She is deceased. I was born in 1955 in the US while she was still a Canadian citizen, but I do not have a copy of her certificate. I DO have other documents supporting her citizenship, (such as a 1950's era official letter from Canada Immigration acknowledging her lost Canadian passport, and records of her residence and business ownership in Canada from the 1940's and 1950's, as well as divorce papers from a Canadian court.) Although I forwarded notarized copies of all these documents to CIC, they did not accept them as adequate evidence. I first applied to CIC for MY certificate, and they requested my mother's proof of Canadian citizenship. I applied for HER proof of citizenship, and they did not find her in their records. So, I'm at an impasse.
> How do I obtain assistance with a more comprehensive record search, or if that fails, use existent documents to prove her citizenship? Likewise, is it just time to give up on this dream and realize the technical issues cannot be overcome.
> Thank you!



Was she even a citizen? She could have been a permanent resident without having citizenship. If that is the case, then you would not be eligible for citizenship through her.


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## accbgb (Sep 23, 2009)

Are you sure she actually became a Canadian citizen?



> *Q. What is the difference between Canadian Landed Immigrant status and Canadian Citizenship status?*
> 
> A. Canadian Landed Immigrant status requires a person to live in Canada a certain number of days and obtain a Canadian Permanent Resident Card ("PR") or risk losing the status. Canadian Citizenship is a step higher than Canadian Landed Immigrant status. After you have obtained Canadian Landed Immigrant status you can apply for Canadian Citizenship. With Canadian Citizenship status you have benefits: no longer required to live in Canada or lose status; PR Card not required; can get passport; and can vote. An application must be made to obtain a PR Card. An application must be made to obtain Citizenship.
> 
> Immigration and Citizenship Services - Immigration FAQ


You might try searching here Immigration Records - Library and Archives Canada and then proceed step-by-step from there.


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## MarylandNed (May 11, 2010)

colchar said:


> Was she even a citizen? She could have been a permanent resident without having citizenship. If that is the case, then you would not be eligible for citizenship through her.





accbgb said:


> Are you sure she actually became a Canadian citizen?


The OP stated that the mother had a Canadian passport which was lost.


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## accbgb (Sep 23, 2009)

MarylandNed said:


> The OP stated that the mother had a Canadian passport which was lost.


Yes, I know.

But, as one who has done thousands of hours of genealogical research of my own family and others, I can tell you that personal knowledge often proves to be based on false memories and sometimes even outright lies.

The mother having had a Canadian passport which was lost flies directly in the face of the relevant Canadian government agencies being unable to find any such record.

If we were talking about the very early 1900's, I would suggest that the records were simply lost. Another possibility, depending especially upon the mother's original place of birth, is that the spelling of her name has deliberately or inadvertently become corrupted over time - the Canadian government is looking for "Smith" when it needs to look for "Smythe", for example. This comes up often when researching Italian genealogy...


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## FourAgreements (Mar 19, 2014)

Yes, except that the OP stated

*"I DO have other documents supporting her citizenship, (such as a 1950's era official letter from Canada Immigration acknowledging her lost Canadian passport..."*





accbgb said:


> Yes, I know.
> 
> But, as one who has done thousands of hours of genealogical research of my own family and others, I can tell you that personal knowledge often proves to be based on *false memories and sometimes even outright lies*.
> 
> ...


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## accbgb (Sep 23, 2009)

FourAgreements said:


> Yes, except that the OP stated
> 
> *"I DO have other documents supporting her citizenship, (such as a 1950's era official letter from Canada Immigration acknowledging her lost Canadian passport..."*


Yes, but a letter "acknowledging her lost Canadian passport" more than likely does not imply that the Canadian authorities acknowledged her citizenship status, merely the fact that she reported a lost passport.

I could be snarky and say that authorities are very used to people trying to do an end-run around the system by insisting that, "I had a passport but I must have lost it!" but, frankly, I would personally try researching from the perspective of a possible name change. Perhaps her original name was "Smythe" but when she reported the lost passport she said "Smith" because that was her current usage and she forgot that the passport was issued in her former name.

Depending on exactly when she might have become a Canadian citizen, the OP might want to try searching here Naturalization Records, 1915–1951 - Library and Archives Canada


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