Government policies on citizenship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Government policies on citizenship - Essay Example In Canada for example, the citizenship act states that citizenship becomes automatic for any person born in Canada or born of Canadian parents after February 14th, 1977. This is the citizenship status acquisition by birth. The same is true for children born in the United States or born of American parents (they immediately qualify to be citizens). Citizenship by birth is however challenged when it comes to children who are not born in these respective countries but whom are adopted by the parents who are citizens of these nations. According to the Canadian citizenship act, there is a gray area where this issue is concerned. The issue has however been mentioned by the Department of Justice though the meaning remains vague and ambiguous. The same cannot be said to be true in the US as there is no mention of such matter by the department of State Bureau of Consular affairs which is charged with the responsibility of citizenship. This probably explains why questions are raised about couples who adopt children outside the jurisdiction of the United States and what will become of such children where citizenship is concerned. Most of such individuals when they grow up are forced to apply citizenship through naturalization method and this is not tight since their adoption is by American citizen parents just like those born by them. When it comes to naturalization, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services categorize the people who should or should not receive citizenship. This department handles such issues because most of the rules surrounding this type of naturalization depend on how long an individual has been in the country which is under the jurisdiction of immigration. In both countries (Canada and USA), the rules of application of citizenship by naturalization are strict and require the individual to have permanently resided in those countries for a number of years. The