Commonwealth Citizenship
Under British law, Canadians are Commonwealth citizens and hence are entitled to certain rights in the United Kingdom:
- access to the British working holiday visa scheme
- for those with a British born grandparent, access to the UK Ancestry Entry Clearance
- for those born before 1983 who meet the requirements, Right of Abode in the United Kingdom
- if resident in Great Britain or Northern Ireland, the right to vote and stand for public office there
Commonwealth citizenship also imparts rights within other Commonwealth realms although many of these have now been repealed.
- While abroad in a country where Canada does not have a consular office, Canadians may receive assistance from an Australian consular office under the Canada-Australia Consular Services Sharing Agreement. In areas where neither Country is represented Canadians may receive assistance from a British office. In cases where a Canadian needs an emergency travel document and Canada does not maintain a consular office, Canadians may obtain, as Commonwealth citizens, a British emergency passport.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Nationality Law
Famous quotes containing the words commonwealth and/or citizenship:
“We must conceive of this whole universe as one commonwealth of which both gods and men are members.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“I would wish that the women of our country could embrace ... [the responsibilities] of citizenship as peculiarly their own. If they could apply their higher sense of service and responsibility, their freshness of enthusiasm, their capacity for organization to this problem, it would become, as it should become, an issue of profound patriotism. The whole plane of political life would be lifted.”
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964)