Adding a foreign citizenship via "jus sanguinis" nationality laws.

[Wormius]

I couldn't find a thread on this particular topic, and maybe this has some relevance to other members.

Within the last few years, I found that I was eligible (through some effort on my part) to obtain citizenship to a couple of countries via the "jus sanguinis" nationality laws of my parents', and their parents' origins - namely Italy and Luxembourg. Since Luxembourg will cease its program in 2018, I should probably act on it sooner than later.

Has anybody ever proceeded with this, or even have multiple citizenships with countries in the EU? What are the pros & cons of supplementing your Canadian citizenship with one or more EU countries? Do you receive any of the perks of being a citizen in a country where you have never lived?

[Hack&Lube]

Yeah, you get free travel through borders at airports, throughout the Schengen zone, etc. as well as rights to free schooling in many EU countries.

[Fuzz]

I got my British before I turned 18 and my wife is worknig on her German one now(holly paperwork Batman!). I don't really see any drawbacks, but you may want to look at the individual countries(make sure their is no military service requirement!) My British one was useful, as I spent a summer working there. Much easier to get jobs with citizenship, and it is good for the whole EU.
I suggest if it is ending soon, do it. You may regret not doing it later. My brother sure does, as it was to late for him to do it after he put it off for so long.

[calgarygeologist]

I just started my paper work for my Polish citizenship so that I can get an EU passport and freely work in the EU. Luckily my mom is around and is doing the forms for me because she has a lot of the required information. It could take around a year though unless they find that I already have citizenship and a PESEL ID number. My mom doesn't remember if they had registered me for citizenship when I was born because I was born outside of Poland and we moved to Canada before my first birthday.

Another pro is that your kids can subsequently apply for citizenship at some point if they want it. As the history of your families citizenship gets broken it becomes more difficult to get that citizenship back.

As my mom was digging up papers this week she found a Polish passport in a box. She was really surprised because it expired in 2012 and she didn't even remember applying for a Polish passport in 2002.

[Amethyst]

For Italy or Luxembourg, I would do it. It gives your better access to Europe in the future, if you ever want to work or spend extended time there.

With some countries, there might be issues with things like compulsory military service or forcing you to give up your Canadian citizenship, but if that doesn't apply to either of those countries, I don't see any other downside.

I would do it, because it is always nice to have options, even if you don't have any particular need for it at this time.

[GP_Matt]

Until Canada goes to war against Luxembourg. Then you will have to pick a side.

[indes]

Me and my brother are swiss citizens through my mother's side, he went to live there for a year and the military service isn't an issue. There's paperwork and what not but it was pretty easy to sort out.

[Locke]

Luxembourg citizen eh?

Are you looking for a new accountant by any chance?

[FlamesAddiction]

I went through this a while back to get my Croatian citizenship. On paper, it is an easy process. I had to provide documentation proving my parents birth, their nationality and my birth. There was also a test that I had to pass in the Croatian language about our history, geography, political and judicial systems. It was mostly multiple choice and fill in the blanks.

However the process became complicated because my mother's parents were immigrants to Yugoslavia from Poland and Ukraine, and they never registered her birth there. My father came to Canada as a fugitive and officially renounced his citizenship there and declared political asylum in Canada. To make it even more complicated, he changed his name and age on his Canadian papers to better hide from the regime. And if that wasn't bad enough, he said his birth country was Croatia when in fact he was born in Bosnia (Croats in Bosnia are citizens of Croatia). It made proving his identity difficult, but fortunately someone at the consulate in Mississauga was helpful in arguing my case. I had to also request his landing papers from the office in Halifax.

[Street Pharmacist]

Got my Dutch passport and worked in Europe for about a year and a half. Now I use it so I can say:
"I am from Hooooolllland. Isn't that veird?"

[4X4]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I went through this a while back to get my Croatian citizenship. On paper, it is an easy process. I had to provide documentation proving my parents birth, their nationality and my birth. There was also a test that I had to pass in the Croatian language about our history, geography, political and judicial systems. It was mostly multiple choice and fill in the blanks.

However the process became complicated because my mother's parents were immigrants to Yugoslavia from Poland and Ukraine, and they never registered her birth there. My father came to Canada as a fugitive and officially renounced his citizenship there and declared political asylum in Canada. To make it even more complicated, he changed his name and age on his Canadian papers to better hide from the regime. And if that wasn't bad enough, he said his birth country was Croatia when in fact he was born in Bosnia (Croats in Bosnia are citizens of Croatia). It made proving his identity difficult, but fortunately someone at the consulate in Mississauga was helpful in arguing my case. I had to also request his landing papers from the office in Halifax.

Jeez. That's much worse than my situation. First, my mother misspelled her maiden name on my birth record. Then, my dad gave up his Italian citizenship before going back home to visit in the 70s, so that he wouldn't get stuck doing a year of military service. Also, according to Canada, he was born in Jamaica, not Italy (wtf?). And even though we figured most of this stuff out, when my sis took the documents to the Italian consulate in Edmonton, the guy there (Ambrosino) told her "there was a problem that year" in regard to the year I was born. lol.

There are strange rules to this. My dad was born in Italy, and came here when he was 10. He did not apply for citizenship until he was 30-something, and only did because he married my mother and wanted to take her to Italy on a trip. Because he married her while he was Italian, she "became" Italian. However, once he gave up his Italian citizenship (which was the year before I was born), I was no longer eligible to get Italian citizenship through him, but, (loophole), now my mother is "Italian", so I can get it through her, even though they've been divorced for over 30 years. Except for that pesky part about "there was a problem that year".

Never change, Italy. Never lose your mystique. Nobody knows what the problem was that year, but there was a problem that year.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Jeez. That's much worse than my situation. First, my mother misspelled her maiden name on my birth record. Then, my dad gave up his Italian citizenship before going back home to visit in the 70s, so that he wouldn't get stuck doing a year of military service. Also, according to Canada, he was born in Jamaica, not Italy (wtf?). And even though we figured most of this stuff out, when my sis took the documents to the Italian consulate in Edmonton, the guy there (Ambrosino) told her "there was a problem that year" in regard to the year I was born. lol.

There are strange rules to this. My dad was born in Italy, and came here when he was 10. He did not apply for citizenship until he was 30-something, and only did because he married my mother and wanted to take her to Italy on a trip. Because he married her while he was Italian, she "became" Italian. However, once he gave up his Italian citizenship (which was the year before I was born), I was no longer eligible to get Italian citizenship through him, but, (loophole), now my mother is "Italian", so I can get it through her, even though they've been divorced for over 30 years. Except for that pesky part about "there was a problem that year".

Never change, Italy. Never lose your mystique. Nobody knows what the problem was that year, but there was a problem that year.

Heh, yeah. It probably didn't help either that my parents first declared refugee status in Italy and then immigrated to Canada from there. All of his UN papers were administered from Italy and are in Italian. Someone actually scratched out Bosnia and wrote Croatia on it for his country of origin. W

hile in Italy, my father was involved in anti-communist activities and helped other military deserters leave Yugoslavia, hence why he ended up declaring political asylum in Canada and renounced his citizenship there. Until the fall of Yugoslavia, he still had a warrant out for his arrest there.

[Wormius]

Good to see this isn't as overly a complicated process as I initially thought. In the process of trying to get the Luxembourg one now. For some reason my brother feels that the Italian one is off the table since my mother gave up Italian citizenship long before she was married or had us. I don't know if bloodline though still counts at all in the case of Italy.

Italy seemed like it would be good since there were a couple of reciprocity agreements in place between Canada and Italy.

As far as just having citizenship an EU country, do you have the same benefits as any citizen, or do you need to have lived there long term to, say use their health system if you are there or things like that. Or if I am citizen and go there with my Canadian earned money, is it suddenly now income again from the other country's perspective?

I am curious why countries are doing this, also. Is it to replenish dwindling populations or what?

[Swift]

Funnily enough, I was just reading up on some of this stuff yesterday.

I'm an EU citizen, but my wife is Canadian and my son was born here too. In particular, I was interested in the freedom of movement and residence to see what possibilities may be open to me in the future, and so I went to the EU website - http://ec.europa.eu/justice/citizen/...e/index_en.htm

Citizens of the EU and their family members have the right to move and reside freely within the territory of the EU, subject to certain conditions. This right is conferred directly on every EU citizen by Article 21 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. As specified in directive 2004/38, the following rules apply:

• Article 6: EU citizens can reside on the territory of another EU country for up to three months without any conditions other than the requirement to hold a valid identity card or passport;
• Article 7: To reside in another EU country for more than three months, EU citizens are required to meet certain conditions depending on their status (i.e. worker, student, etc.) and may also be required to meet certain administrative formalities;
• Article 16: EU citizens can acquire the right to permanent residence in another EU country after legally residing there for a continuous period of five years;
• Article 3: The family members of EU citizens have the right to accompany or join them in another EU country, subject to certain conditions.

I had absolutely no idea about the family members part of it, so that was pleasing to find out. I did a little bit of extra reading and all that is really required for the family is some extra paperwork and the associated fees.


I was then curious as to what exactly constituted the EU. Obviously I know of the member states but specifically, I was wondering about their various overseas territories. Unfortunately, none of the British Caribbean territories follow EU law (though some of the French ones do)


Here's a guide - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specia...nd_territories


It seems for the most part the OMR territories follow EU law (Canaries, Azores) but OCT territories don't. Man, the Azores looks lovely - average highs of 25 and lows of 11. If only jobs existed and we were able to speak Portuguese.

[DAN0383]

My mom was born in France (still a French citizen only, landed immigrant here) and I automatically was given French citizenship from birth, last week I actually just went through the process to get my French passport (I was born in Calgary). It was pretty easy, just had to have my mom come along to prove she was a french citizen and show her old passports from when me and my bro were kids and we were on hers, also had to have the french copy of my birth certificate (it was registered in France when I was born aswell). Should have my passport in 3 weeks or so.