{"id":8441,"date":"2026-04-17T21:52:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/8441\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:52:06","slug":"requests-flood-in-with-canadian-citizinship-easier-to-obtain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/8441\/","title":{"rendered":"Requests flood in with Canadian citizinship easier to obtain"},"content":{"rendered":"

CANADA \u2014 Being able to work, go to school or just travel in a country are a lot easier with citizenship. Canada recently made it a lot easier to get that.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We] speak the same language, almost the same food,” said\u00a0Rosanna Berardi, the managing partner at Berardi Immigration Law. “It’s a very easy transition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canada is seeing a lot more citizen requests from the land of the free and the home of the brave.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you wanted to move to another country, Canada from the U.S. would be the easiest,\u201d Berardi said.<\/p>\n

Requirements to get citizenship now extend not just from from parent to child, but to any grandparents, going back multiple generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously I’m biased as an immigration lawyer, but the more citizenships you can have, the better,” said Berardi. “It just opens up so many employment opportunities, education opportunities. We\u2019re a global world.\u201d<\/p>\n

That also means you need to prove the link back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Canadian government is not going to do that for you,\u201d said Berardi.<\/p>\n

That is why places like the\u00a0Lincoln Pelham Public Library in Canada, where some archives are stored, are seeing a lot more action.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomebody who’s really passionate about their family history is a rare breed,\u201d said Amanda Knapper, chair for the Niagara Peninsula Branch of Ontario Ancestors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since January, they have seen requests go up 30% compared to their entire last year. Most of the requests are specific to birth and baptism.<\/p>\n

They have a dedicated volunteer for these requests. That\u2019s not the case everywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the other branches within the province have actually refused to take the requests, and aren’t interested in that,” said Knapper. “They don’t have the volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

That’s because the further back you go, the harder it gets. If the staff isn’t there to support it, that’s a lot of work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1869, the Canadian government at the time said, ‘we want all births to be registered with the province. Sounds like a great idea,'” said\u00a0Bill Young, a research and cemetery contact lead for the Niagara Peninsula Branch of Ontario Ancestors. “[But] you know, there are stats that even in the 1890s, they only had 80% of births being registered.\u201d<\/p>\n

That’s where the hunt begins.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is kind of like solving a mystery,\u201d said Knapper.<\/p>\n

They look for any records of ancestors, and even different spellings.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe your ancestor […] changed an E to an O or an A to an I,\u201d Knapper said.<\/p>\n

Even with all that, there’s still one big “if.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they were religious, which most people were, then you go to birth and baptism records with churches, which is great… if they survived,\u201d explained Young.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bit of knowledge and a bit of luck.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the most part, it’s probably about a 50-50 chance depending on when,\u201d said Knapper.<\/p>\n

Getting all that is still just the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always suggest that you consult with a professional geneologist and that you talk with an attorney who specializes in these type of applications so that they can get specific information about what they need,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

But if they can help, they\u2019re happy to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am Canadian. Obviously I love Canada,” said Knapper. “The more Canadians we have, the better, as far as I’m concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite some stories about getting their paperwork and their citizenship within a matter of months, Berardi says hold your horses. It already took a while to get a Canadian passport.<\/p>\n

Add that in with the influx of applications and nobody should be planning their summer vacation around having this done by then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CANADA \u2014 Being able to work, go to school or just travel in a country are a lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4753,2946,17,3925,4752,116,4755,4754],"class_list":{"0":"post-8441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-buffalo","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-new-york-state","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-viktoria-hallikaar","15":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}