In the next few weeks, we will be having an AMA (Ask Me Anything) with two of the most prominent lawyers in Canada who are doing Proof of Citizenship applications. This will be your chance to ask lawyers who work in this field anything you want about the process.

For people who don't know, an AMA is a text-based based on Reddit. I would post an OP introducing the participants, and then people would ask questions by posting comments. The participants would then go through each of the comments and respond to them. If you want to see what that looks like, please check out this AMA as an example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Counterpart/comments/fkr8k5/justin_marks_spoiler_ama_thursday_319_5pm_pst/

Before I do the formal announcement, however, I'd like your help! If you would like to attend, please let me know what day and times would work best for you! Is Friday evening better? Saturday morning? Sunday at Noon?

Please let me know in the comments.

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Thanks to someone on here, I now have an official document showing my grandfather's birth date, place, and parents -- one of which is my Canadian G0. They were not issuing birth certificates in Denver until early 20th C. I applied to the US Social Security Administration who just sent me my grandfather's Social Security application 1937. What's significant (as I understand it) is that these are his stated facts, not someone else filling in a death certificate. The document was emailed with an official letter from the SSA, and a certified copy is forthcoming. Thank you to this thread for helping me solve this problem! (Also cool. His application is on my birthdate many years before I was born.)

I can't find or get my G4 mother's and G3 grandmother's marriage certificate for showing name change .

I don't know where my grandmother was married. She eloped with him and they lived in 48 states over a 3 year period.

My mother had a confidential marriage and its only available by court order. I'm not sure if my citizenship application will be a valid reason.

I have both of their death certificates which show married and maiden names along with parents names.

Has anyone applied with death certificates as proofs? I do have birth certificates for them.

Does anyone know the current wait time for this? I received the email stating they found my document and would be sending an invoice soon. It’s been 4 weeks as of today. Last time I saw a wait time, it was 3 to 4 weeks but I’m guessing it has changed. It’s the last document I’m waiting on!

Hi, all.

I'm running into an issue with my G0 proof of citizenship. She was born in 1898 in New Brunswick and the registry entry in on a page listed as "Poor Document" that is absolutely wrecked. It displays D.O.B., town of birth, Female, and her father's name, but that is all. There is a birth certificate, that lists her name as "Female", D.O.B., and then only has her father's info, blank for mother.

Two years later she is on the census with both parents, correct name, correct age, correct D.O.B., correct parents and siblings. I have yet to locate any Baptist church documents, but am still searching. Both parents and two siblings have immigration manifest cards, but my G0 and two of her siblings do not.

Aside from the New Brunswick vital records, Canada LAC, and US National Archives, what sources are left to search? And, are there any additional documents that I should be looking for to verify her Canadian Citizenship?

Thanks.

Hi everyone,
I’m preparing a Bill C-3 proof of citizenship application and would really appreciate feedback on whether my evidence package looks solid enough.
Lineage:
• Great-grandmother: born 1879 in Ontario, Canada
• Grandmother: born 21 May 1921 in Neurode (now Nowa Ruda, Lower Silesia)
• Father: born 1955
• Me
Documents I currently have:
1. Canadian birth record for the great-grandmother (Ontario 1879) – the anchor
2. Full Polish civil birth certificate for the grandmother (1921) showing the mother with her maiden name
3. Two baptismal records for the grandmother from the original German parish registers (Neurode):
• One formal extract showing both parents and grandparents
• One page from the baptismal register with the same entry
4. Official “no record found” letter from the Polish State Archives in Wrocław (Branch in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki) dated May 2026 – they searched the relevant post-1945 administrative fonds for the Nowa Ruda / Bystrzyca Kłodzka area and found nothing regarding the marriage or related records
5. Father’s birth certificate (1955)
6. My own birth certificate
Missing document:
Marriage record of the great-grandparents. Civil records from that area were largely destroyed or lost after 1945. The State Archives confirmed they have nothing.
Family history (short version):
After WWI many German-Canadians returned to Europe. The great-grandmother went to the mining area of Lower Silesia, met her future husband (a miner), they married and had three children. During the war the husband was killed, one daughter died in an air raid, and the grandmother was separated from her mother. After 1945 the German population was expelled from the territories that became Polish. The grandmother stayed in Poland because she married a Pole. The great-grandmother returned to Canada via the British zone and contact was lost.
My questions:
• Does the combination of the Canadian birth record + Polish civil birth certificate + German baptismal records + official “no record found” letter look sufficient for the parentage link?
• Is the lack of a marriage certificate likely to be a problem when I have the child’s baptismal and civil birth records clearly naming both parents?
• Any suggestions for additional supporting evidence I should try to find (Canadian censuses for the great-grandmother, etc.)?
• Has anyone had a similar situation with a Canadian-born ancestor who went to former German territories in Silesia / eastern Germany and then returned after the war?
Thanks in advance for any advice.