Some 'Lost Canadians' told to surrender new citizenship certificates

A number of Americans who recently received proof of Canadian citizenship are being asked to surrender their new certificates pending further review, sparking confusion and disappointment among those affected and their lawyers.

Letters sent by Canada's immigration ministry and shared with the BBC state that recipients "may not be entitled" to their certificates of citizenship and ask for them to be returned.

The letters were sent to an unknown number of people who obtained citizenship via an ancestral tie to Canada under a law enacted in December.

In a statement to the BBC, an immigration ministry spokesperson confirmed "a limited number of files" are being reviewed.

The review "concerns the processing of individual cases", the spokesperson said, and that those who received surrender letters will have the opportunity to provide additional evidence to support their citizenship case.

"If the review confirms that the individual is entitled to the certificate, it will be returned," the spokesperson said.

Shawn Davis Mooney, who recently relocated permanently from California to Victoria, British Columbia, with his husband was alarmed when he received his letter.

"It has devastated me beyond imagination," he said.

Mooney applied for Canadian citizenship after the so-called "Lost Canadians" law came into effect late last year.

With the help of a lawyer, he said he submitted 114 pages of documents showing a great-great-grandparent was born in the province of New Brunswick. He was approved for urgent processing and granted a citizenship certificate in February, he said.

Now, he is unsure of his status in Canada. "I had to read (the letter) three times," he said. "I couldn't understand it."

The letter, signed by the Registrar of Canadian Citizenship Peggy Sun, stated that his citizenship certificate may be revoked because he failed to provide the right documentation.

Mooney said the letter left him and his lawyers confused. He maintained that his application was exhaustive. "The worst part is it's making us feel like frauds, or we've done something wrong," he said.

The letter also states the status of his citizenship is under review.

The letter is identical to others posted online or shared with the BBC by other recipients.

Rana Charron, who lives in Cleveland, Ohio, said she applied for Canadian citizenship using census records that proved her great-great-grandmother was French-Canadian and from Quebec, as no birth certificate or baptismal records were available from that time.

Her application was approved, she said, and she received a physical copy of her Canadian citizenship certificate earlier this month. Now, she said she is preparing to send it back.

"I was very excited to be formally Canadian," she said. "Growing up, my family was very aware of our Canadian heritage... it mattered a lot to me."

Being asked to surrender her citizenship certificate, Charron added, "is one of the largest disappointments I've had in my life".

The letters were "shocking" to Lisa Middlemiss, a Montreal immigration lawyer.

"Only in very rare circumstances can the government revoke citizenship," Middlemiss said, adding that those receiving the surrender letters are people who have already gone through the appropriate process as set out by Canada's immigration laws.

"It sends such a bad message for Canada," she said.

Canada received more than 12,000 applications in the first month-and-a-half after the "Lost Canadians" law was enacted.

Most citizenship applications were granted for people born in the US, according to government data reported on by CBC, with the next mostly likely to be approved were applicants born in Mexico and the UK. Information about denied applications are not currently publicly available.

In its statement, Canada's immigration ministry said each application was reviewed by "trained officers" before certificates were granted.

However, it added that it is reviewing these affected files "to ensure they are assessed fairly, consistently and in accordance with the law."

Charron said she still intends to see her case through, but added it has made her distrustful of Canada's citizenship processes.

"If they can just yank that back, what's going to stop them from doing it two years from now, or 10 years from now, when people have really settled down and put roots?"

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