Citizenship for Canadian Child born to TWN Mom

[robinrussia]

Hi,

I’ve applied for permanent residency for my wife, who is Taiwanese, and she should have everyrthing processed by August / September 2016. I’m going home in late October to set up the house and get everything ready for my wife and 8 yo daughter to come over.

News came that she is pregnant and will give birth in June, which is great, but problematic for the following reasons.

1. Applying for a Citizenship card will take 8-11 months. and one more month for a passport. So while my wife can travel, she can’t leave the child.
2. There is no point in sponsoring the child as she/he will be Canadian due to me being Canadian. It will take 13 months to process that application.
3. I guess I could simply take her/him on vacation to meet the grandparents and never leave canada and begin the process of applying. My wife would have to arrive a few days after me.

However, I see the facilition visa is an option:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/temp/visa/types/facilitation.asp

for presumptive Canadians under the age of 18 who are coming to Canada either to reside with their Canadian parent(s) or… The person must also be in possession of a valid foreign national passport or travel document in order for the facilitation visa to be issued. Satisfactory evidence (a Canadian birth certificate, citizenship certificate, etc.) must be presented to prove that at least one parent is Canadian and the visa officer must be satisfied of the parent-child relationship.

From this, it appears that applying for a taiwan passport and then for a Faciltation visa is the best route. Would this be a correct understanding on my part?

Any other suggestions on how I could bring my child, with my wife at the same time?

[SettlementOrgMod]

Hello,

Thank you for sharing your situation and question with us.

We can appreciate that you would want to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a definitive response regarding how to proceed in this type of application process. We hope that others who have experienced something similar can share their experiences and suggestions with you.

All we can do is provide some additional information that may be helpful.

You may have already seen this previous Operational Bulletin while trying to find an answer. It contains a lot of the information that you already found and provided above.

However, you may be able to find some additional explanation regarding facilitation visas in this previous Operational Bulletin.

Here is an excerpt,

Effective immediately, facilitation visas may also be issued to presumptive Canadians under the age of 18 years who are coming to Canada either to reside with their Canadian parent(s) or for humanitarian and compassionate reasons as determined by the visa officer. The person must be unable to obtain a new, replacement or emergency Canadian passport in a sufficiently timely fashion and the travel must be urgent. The person may or may not be travelling with the Canadian parent. The person must also be in possession of a valid foreign national passport or travel document in order for the facilitation visa to be issued. Satisfactory evidence (a Canadian passport, Canadian birth certificate, citizenship certificate, etc.) must be presented to prove that at least one parent is Canadian and the visa officer must be satisfied of the parent-child relationship.

Section 11 of the Immigration Refugee and Protection Act (IRPA) specifies that a visa officer must be satisfied that a person is a foreign national in order to issue a temporary resident visa (TRV). A foreign national is defined in IRPA as “a person who is not a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident, and includes a stateless person.” Someone who is a Canadian citizen is not, therefore, eligible for a TRV. There are, however, exceptional circumstances where CIC can facilitate the travel of a dual national by placing a facilitation visa counterfoil into the passport of the Canadian’s other nationality, including if there are evidentiary concerns with respect to a person’s Canadian citizenship. For example, if a child of a Canadian citizen has not yet obtained proof of Canadian citizenship, a facilitation visa can be issued where the identity of the child is not in question.

The issuance of a facilitation visa will not impact the citizenship status of an individual and has no effect on the official determination by CIC on an application for proof of citizenship.

It should be noted that these individuals should be counseled to submit an application for a citizenship certificate (proof of citizenship) as soon as possible, if they have not already done so. The facilitation visa issuance process should nonetheless be sufficiently rigorous to minimize the risk of admitting persons without status into Canada.

It is important to note that this is from a previously posted operational bulletin.

It may also be helpful to try and contact CIC directly. We have had some of our users previously state that they have been able to contact CIC from abroad by dialing 1 613 944 4000. Listen to the options to get to CIC.

Please note though that some have reported that it is no longer working.

You may want to give it a try.

If you do decide to call, let us know the outcome.

Long distance charges will apply.

Interestingly, there is a Temporary visitor visa - Daughter, 2 current news story that may be of interest to as well.

Again, we are sorry we are unable to provide a definitive response regarding this type of application process.

I hope this information is helpful. Please let us know if you have further questions and if there is any follow up to your question/situation.

=====
Anna
Settlement.Org Content and Information/Referral Specialist, CIRS
Settlement.Org