I’m a Canadian born in Canada and just had my first child here in Japan with my wife. Wondering if anyone here has had experience with getting their child Canadian citizenship.
From reading the Canadian official website it seems like I have to apply for a Canadian Citizenship Certificate. After that, we can sign up our child.
Seems pretty straightforward, just wondering if anyone else has dealt with this, any possible obstacles that I may not know about?
2 comments
Basically that is it, just follow the instructions and get the Canadian Citizenship certificate. If I recall correctly I was able to apply for both the Citizenship Certificate and their first passport at the same time.
The only problem I remember having was with getting translations of their Japanese documents done by one of the officially approved translators since the list they had at the time was out of date. That was a few years back though, I would guess they’ve updated it by now.
Also, be aware that you’ll need their Canadian passports if you have any plans to take them on a trip to Canada anytime soon, so allow plenty of time for that. If your kids also have Japanese citizenship (mine do) they won’t be able to travel to Canada on a Japanese passport.
In the case you are planning to travel to Canada, the [current estimated wait time on the Canadian Citizenship certificate](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/application/check-processing-times.html) is **17 months**. I’ve read that as long as you have an application submitted, you can get a temporary passport from the embassy, but I have no experience with that, yet.