Canadian Citizenship Granted

Yesterday Lauren's citizenship paperwork arrived in the mail granting her full Canadian citizenship. We had applied for it a few months after we arrived home. It was much less involved than he immigration paperwork that we filled out before we left for China.

Bill C-14, which received Royal Accent on June 22, 2007, amended the Citizenship Act so that children adopted abroad by Canadians could get Canadian citizenship without first having to become permanent residents and thus avoiding the usual immigration process. The amendment represents an important move to end the differential treatment of adopted children vs. children born to Canadians.

A foreign-born adopted child would acquire Canadian citizenship as soon as the adoption is finalized, as long as the parents have applied for citizenship in the child's name before they leave Canada. More information can be found here on the C-14 citizenship billl.

Our American neighbo(u)rs have a similar system already in place under their Child Citizenship Act of 2000.