Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!rbutterworth
From: rbutterworth@watmath.waterloo.edu (Ray Butterworth)
Newsgroups: ont.jobs
Subject: Re: Job Hunting in Ontario: looking for advice
Keywords: job search, citizenship, questions
Message-ID: <17045@watmath.waterloo.edu>
Date: 22 Feb 88 19:04:58 GMT
References: <8701@sunybcs.UUCP> <5285@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <1988Feb22.121808.11474@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>
Distribution: ont
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 34

In article <1988Feb22.121808.11474@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu>, nixon@ai.toronto.edu (Brian Nixon) writes:
> Landed immigrant status is not the same as citizenship.
> Differences include eligibility for voting and certain government jobs.

(Do you know which government jobs?)
Non-citizens are also prohibited from owning radio and TV stations.

It took me 20 years before I applied for citizenship; my parents
nearly 30.  Other than voting privileges, there is no noticeable
difference for most people.  Non-citizens are not required to carry
identity cards, and are not required to register their addresses with
the government every year as are "resident aliens" in the US.
Barring a drastic change in government policy, unless you have a shady
background and lied about it on your application there is very little
chance of losing landed status once you get it.

> Landed immigrant status may be lost much more easily than citizenship.

In fact it is very difficult to lose citizenship.  Canadian rules seem
to work the opposite way to most countries.  If you were born here,
even if while your parents were vacationing here, you are a Canadian
citizen.  If you are born elsewere, you are a Canadian citizen if your
parents were at the time.  Once you have Canadian citizenship, even
if you move elsewhere and become a citizen of that country you don't
lose your Canadian citizenship (although in many places, e.g. USA,
to become a citizen of that country you must formally renounce your
Canadian citizenship).

Getting landed immigrant status in the first place can be a long
process though.  It is awarded to a limited number of people per
year, based on a point system.  The points are heavily loaded to
favour family members (e.g. effectively infinite points for a close
relative), but even so, it can take over 6 months for all the paper
work to make the rounds.