The status of 'Canadian citizen' was originally created under the Immigration Act, 1910 to designate those British subjects who were born, naturalized, or domiciled in Canada. All other British subjects required permission to land. 'Domicile' was defined as having been resident in Canada for three years, excluding any time spent in prisons or mental institutions. A separate status of 'Canadian national' was created under the Canadian Nationals Act, 1921, which was defined as being a Canadian citizen as defined above, their wives, and any children that had not yet landed in Canada. However, these concepts were merely subsets of the status of "British subject", which was regulated by the Imperial British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914, which was adopted in Canada by the Naturalization Act, 1914.
Creation of Canadian Citizenship (January 1947)
Canadian citizenship, as a status separate from British nationality, was created by the Canadian Citizenship Act, 1946, which came into effect on 1 January 1947. Canadian citizenship was generally conferred immediately on the following persons:
a British subject who was born in Canada
a person other than a natural-born Canadian citizen:
* who was granted, or whose name was included in, a certificate of naturalization under any act of the Parliament of Canada and had not become an alien at the commencement of the Act, or
* who was a British subject who had acquired Canadian domicile before 1947
a British subject who lived in Canada for 20 years immediately before 1947 and was not, on 1 January 1947, under order of deportation
women who were married to a Canadian before 1947 and who entered Canada as a landed immigrant before 1947
children born outside Canada to a Canadian father before 1947
In the latter two cases, a "Canadian" was a British subject who would have been considered a Canadian citizen if the 1947 Act had come into force immediately before the marriage or birth. Where the child born outside Canada was not a minor at the time the Act came into force, proof of landed immigrant status was required to confirm Canadian citizenship.
In addition to those people who became Canadian citizens upon the coming into force of the Act, citizenship afterwards was generally acquired as follows:
birth in Canada
naturalization in Canada after five years' residence as a landed immigrant
grant of citizenship to a foreign woman married to a Canadian man after one year's residence as a landed immigrant
grant of citizenship to women who lost British subject status prior to 1947 upon marriage to a foreign man or his subsequent naturalization
registration of a child born outside Canada to a Canadian "responsible parent"
Loss of Canadian citizenship generally occurred in the following cases:
naturalization outside Canada
in the case of a minor, naturalization of a parent
service in foreign armed forces
naturalized Canadians who lived outside Canada for 10 years and did not file a declaration of retention
where a Canadian had acquired that status by descent from a Canadian parent, and who was either not lawfully admitted to Canada for permanent residence on the commencement of the Act or was born outside Canada afterwards, loss of citizenship could occur on the person's 22nd birthday unless the person had filed a declaration of retention between their 21st and 22nd birthday and renounced any previous nationality they possessed.
Although Canada restricted dual citizenship between 1947 and 1977, there were some situations where Canadians could nevertheless legally possess another citizenship. For example, migrants becoming Canadian citizens were not asked to formally prove that they had ceased to hold the nationality of their former country. Similarly children born in Canada to non-Canadian parents were not under any obligation to renounce a foreign citizenship they had acquired by descent. Holding a foreign passport did not in itself cause loss of Canadian citizenship. A notable exception to the 1947 act is the annexation of Newfoundland to Canada in 1949, whereby all native or naturalized Newfoundlanders were granted Canadian citizenship under the laws stated in the citizenship act, upon the date of union on 1 April 1949.
