Recent applicants under Canada’s expanded citizenship laws are facing renewed scrutiny after their citizenship applications were already approved. Some recipients of Canadian citizenship certificates in the United States have been told their citizenship claims are now “under review” and have been asked to return their certificates while the government re-examines their files.
On June 13, Canada’s citizenship department sent emails to recent recipients of Canadian citizenship certificates across the United States. Some of the affected people already held a citizenship certificate, and some had also obtained a Canadian passport and Social Insurance Number in preparation for moving to Canada.
The letters cite subsection 26(1) of the Citizenship Regulations. This provision allows the Registrar of Canadian Citizenship to ask a person to surrender a citizenship certificate when there is reason to believe they may not be entitled to it.
The process is not itself a revocation of citizenship, although it can lead to one. It is a review. The letter asks for the paper certificate to be returned while the application file is re-examined.
Recipients are also allowed to respond with more documentary evidence supporting their citizenship claim. If entitlement is confirmed, the certificate is returned.
Why files are being reviewed
The letters from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada cite two main reasons for review.
First, some documents submitted with the application did not come from the source authority. A source authority means the civil registry, vital statistics office, provincial archive, or another official body that created and holds the record needed to support the citizenship application.
Second, where applicants could not obtain a source document, they did not include a written explanation and proof that they had tried to obtain it.
The underlying concern is that some applicants did not adequately prove an unbroken line of descent from a Canadian citizen to themselves through the type of documentation the government requires.
The issue is not necessarily that the applicants are not Canadian. The issue is that they may not have proven their claim in the form required by the government.
Common problems in flagged applications
Based on information shared by applicants in citizenship forums, several patterns appear among people who received surrender request letters:
- Some used Ancestry or FamilySearch printouts as their main proof for an ancestor.
- Some submitted certified records from an archive rather than a vital statistics office and are unsure whether the archive counts as a source authority.
- Some had a real documentary gap, such as no birth record for an ancestor born in the 1850s, but did not formally explain or document that gap to IRCC.
What to do after receiving a surrender letter
People who receive a surrender letter are usually told what factors raised the officer’s concerns. They can submit additional evidence to support the application.
Where the issue is “documents not from an original source authority,” the practical fix is to obtain records directly from the relevant civil registry, vital statistics office, provincial archive, or other official source authority.
Where the issue is missing documentation, the applicant should document the gap carefully and provide proof that the missing record was sought.
If the certificate was printed, the letter asks for it to be returned during the review. If the certificate was electronic, there may be nothing to send back.
The letter does not provide a processing timeline. The process is generally slow and can take multiple months, so applicants should keep copies of everything they submit.
How to avoid problems in a citizenship by descent application
Applicants should obtain documents directly from the source authority. A source authority is the office that originally created and keeps the record, such as a state or provincial vital statistics office, civil registry, or, in older Canadian cases, a recognized provincial archive.
A scan from a genealogy website is not the same as an official source record, even if the image looks identical. A genealogy website may help locate a record, but the registry or archive is the authority.
For each person in the line of descent, the application should include at least one authoritative record proving the link to the next generation. A birth certificate is the strongest single document for this purpose. Where a surname changes, a marriage certificate can carry the chain across the name change.
Missing even one key document, such as a marriage certificate explaining a name change, can delay or undermine an application.
Applicants should also use certified copies. A certified copy is stamped or sealed by the issuing authority as a true copy of the record it holds. Canada does not have a single national vital records office, so applicants usually order records from regional offices that vary by province and state.
If a needed record does not exist
Missing records are not automatically fatal to an application, but unexplained gaps are a problem.
IRCC’s instruction guide tells applicants to include a letter of explanation for any missing document or any document that requires clarification.
When a vital records office searches and finds nothing, it can issue a “letter of no record,” confirming that the record does not exist in its files.
IRCC also has a parallel process for its own records, issuing a “no record letter” when the official authority cannot find the document in question.
Pairing a no-record letter with alternative evidence and a short written explanation can help document a gap in a way that is more likely to satisfy an immigration and citizenship officer.
Citizenship by descent depends on proof. Applicants affected by these letters are being asked to prove their citizenship claim more rigorously, using source records, certified copies, explanations for missing documents, and evidence that unavailable records were formally searched for.
Source article: www.cicnews.com
