Canadian/US dual citizenship required documents (certificate, money, migrate, Canada)

[Irene21]

Looking to acquire dual citizenship. My mother was born in King County (Seattle, WA) in 1918. My great grandparents and grandparents were British subjects. Great grandparents emigrated from UK in 1901. From there resided in Canada until 2016 and then moved to Seattle area. My grandparents met and married in the Seattle area in 1917 and my mother was born in Nov. of 1918. A few tears after my mothers birth my grandparents moved to Canada where we have resided since. My great grandparents are buried in the Seattle area and all of my grandmothers brothers resided in the U.S. raising families in the states of Washington, Oregon and California.
Can I apply for dual Canadian/US citizenship with only my mothers birth certificate from vital statistics in King County or do I also need to provide other documents a well.
I looking to acquire dual citizenship primarily to make travel easier for me as I spend considerable time during the colder months here in Canada down in Arizona. Thank you for any assistance.
Irene Lind

[nightlysparrow]

The good news: You are an American citizen by birth. Apply for a US passport.

But getting the passport will of course require a background check and thus lead the IRS to you (the IRS check happens to prevent people skipping out on child support, other legal debts)...so here is the bad news:

The bad news: All US citizens are required to file US income taxes every year, even for money earned in another country. You should have been filing every year since whenever you started to earn money in Canada. You are already required to file your back taxes and are in violation. There are treaties in place to make sure you are only taxed by one country. (Your first 100k income each year outside the US is not taxed by the US. Canada has extra treaties in place so that you are only taxed the higher amount, generally this means you are taxed in Canada and not the US because of the higher tax rates.) But you still have to file!
There are also treaties in place to protect pension plans and retirement savings accounts in each country (Roth IRA and RRSPs for US and Canada respectively). However, Tax Free Savings Accounts in Canada are NOT covered by these treaties yet and they are considered to be a Foreign Trust by the IRS. This places a large complex burden each year in taxes and is generally considered not worth it if you are an American citizen. Also, each year that you have over $10,000 In assets in Canadian Bank accounts/land etc. you must file a FBAR. PENALTIES FOR NOT FILING AN FBAR ARE SEVERE. Up to 50% of undocumented assets. They don't care if you just didn't know. This is important. FBARs must be received by the IRS by the certain end date not just sent by date. File early. You will probably need to get a Social Security Number in order to pay your taxes.
Looks like the current back filing that needs doing is 3 years income taxes, 6 years FBAR.

https://brighttax.com/blog/at-last-g...-non-compliant

[thedwightguy]

Originally Posted by Irene21

Looking to acquire dual citizenship. My mother was born in King County (Seattle, WA) in 1918. My great grandparents and grandparents were British subjects. Great grandparents emigrated from UK in 1901. From there resided in Canada until 2016 and then moved to Seattle area. My grandparents met and married in the Seattle area in 1917 and my mother was born in Nov. of 1918. A few tears after my mothers birth my grandparents moved to Canada where we have resided since. My great grandparents are buried in the Seattle area and all of my grandmothers brothers resided in the U.S. raising families in the states of Washington, Oregon and California.
Can I apply for dual Canadian/US citizenship with only my mothers birth certificate from vital statistics in King County or do I also need to provide other documents a well.
I looking to acquire dual citizenship primarily to make travel easier for me as I spend considerable time during the colder months here in Canada down in Arizona. Thank you for any assistance.
Irene Lind

must have resided in the US for at least ten years as an adult. My mother is a dual US/Canadian but it doesn't "flow through" to her children. HOWEVER, your "data" is not well written and somewhat hard to follow. You don't mention the actual CITIZENSHIP or residency status of your direct grandparents and bloodline. The status of extended family isn't relevant in the US, and as of TODAY it's actually worth even less. Look up todays White House immigration initiative.

You might look up case law on Chang & Boos excellent website.

You may find it more convenient to add lots of medical insurance for down south. Being an American isn't going to help you with medical. The only advantage is that the US government and Border Security has restricted seniors for US stays. While you may be absent for up to six months and a formula exists in Canada the US is not obligated to allow seniors to stay for that time. They can/have restricted it for people I know, especially when they are travelling alone. Some have owned houses in Arizona for decades.

[NorCalLover]

Originally Posted by Irene21

Looking to acquire dual citizenship. My mother was born in King County (Seattle, WA) in 1918. My great grandparents and grandparents were British subjects. Great grandparents emigrated from UK in 1901. From there resided in Canada until 2016 and then moved to Seattle area. My grandparents met and married in the Seattle area in 1917 and my mother was born in Nov. of 1918. A few tears after my mothers birth my grandparents moved to Canada where we have resided since. My great grandparents are buried in the Seattle area and all of my grandmothers brothers resided in the U.S. raising families in the states of Washington, Oregon and California.
Can I apply for dual Canadian/US citizenship with only my mothers birth certificate from vital statistics in King County or do I also need to provide other documents a well.
I looking to acquire dual citizenship primarily to make travel easier for me as I spend considerable time during the colder months here in Canada down in Arizona. Thank you for any assistance.
Irene Lind

Since there's some responses to your inquiries about US Citizenship above, I also wanted to let you know that as a Commonwealth citizen with British-born grandparents, you qualify for a five year UK Ancestry Visa that can eventually lead to settlement and British Citizenship. More information at https://www.gov.uk/ancestry-visa.

It's not Arizona, but the winters in England are certainly warmer than in Canada.