Citizenship doesn’t pass on for this father

A B.C. father Patrick Chandler is amazed to learn despite being a Canadian citizen, he wasn’t able to pass on his citizenship to his four-year-old and nine-year-old children, who were born in China while he was working there.It turns out Chandler’s birthplace has complicated his own bid to be reunited with his kids.

He was born in Libya to Canadian parents, and lived in Canada from the time he was two until his late teens.Until 2009, a child of a Canadian citizen who was born abroad automatically acquired Canadian citizenship. The former federal Conservative government changed the law to allow the first child born abroad to a Canadian to keep their citizenship. However, that child’s kids aren’t entitled to Canadian citizenship. Chandler’s daughter was born three months after that law passed. He says his daughter wasn’t able to receive Chinese citizenship due to rules regarding registering births. However, she was able to claim Irish citizenship through Chandler’s father.

His son is a Chinese national. The ordeal has left him separated from his kids and wife for the past seven months, reduced to keeping in touch by phone.