Are you Canadian?

Changes to Canadian immigration rules could mean hundreds of thousands of people around the world might automatically qualify for Canadian citizenship.

Amendments to Canadian Citizenship rules last month automatically grants citizenship to those affected under the old Canadian Citizenship Act, including children whose parents were born in Canada.

From April 17, 2009, Canadian citizenship has been retrospectively restored to people forced to give it up when they moved to another country.

According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), you may be a Canadian Citizen if you:

• became a citizen when the first citizenship act took effect in 1947, including those born in Canada prior to 1947 and those who were war brides

• are a British subject who had lived in Canada at least five years prior to 1947, became a citizen temporarily, and then lost your citizenship

• were born in Canada or became a Canadian citizen on or after January 1947 but then lost your citizenship

• were born outside of Canada on or after January 1947 and were the first generation born abroad to a Canadian citizen.

Are you one of the thousands of people affected by this decison?