Why hasn’t Ted Cruz renounced Canadian citizenship yet? That is “confounding Canadian immigration lawyers” according to the Globe and Mail.
They say the process is simple, not complicated and quick.
One says unless there is a security or mental health issue, the process should be “lickety-split.”
Even Conrad Black–perhaps the most noted Canadian to renounce Canadian citizenship–confirms the process does not take long. Black thinks Cruz may regret the decision to do so (as I suspect Mr. Black did–although he was able to come back with no problem after serving some of his prison sentence in the US).
One of the lawyers points out:
“He’s a Harvard-educated lawyer, so what’s the problem? It’s elementary.”
If only it was so easy for us to renounce U.S. citizenship!
National Post has just published the exact same Associated Press article.
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/03/ted-cruz-is-still-canadian-despite-vowing-to-renounce-his-citizenship-as-conrad-black-says-mistake-to-give-it-up/
It will be interesting to see if the American media publishes this article.
And CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ted-cruz-still-canadian-as-immigration-lawyers-express-confusion-1.2483367
And Vancouver Sun:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ted-cruz-still-canadian-as-immigration-lawyers-express-confusion-1.2483367
And MacLeans
http://www2.macleans.ca/2014/01/03/ted-cruz-still-canadian-as-immigration-lawyers-express-confusion/
South of the border, ABC has done a condensed version of the article.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/ted-cruz-dual-us-canadian-citizen-21415386
Even Ted’s Hometown Dallas Morning News has picked up a short version.
http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/01/why-is-it-taking-so-long-for-ted-cruz-to-renounce-his-canadian-citizenship.html/
USAToday published the original version
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2014/01/03/ted-cruz-canada-dual-citizenship/4308583/
Now, if only one of them would report on how horrendous the process is to renounce US citizenship!
The Wire is putting a somewhat different slant on this.
http://www.thewire.com/politics/2014/01/why-ted-cruz-still-canadian/356690/
They wonder if Ted simply wants to keep his options open
Let’s hope Ted doesn’t plan to return to his birth country like Conrad Black did. If he does, we could educate Ted about FATCA, FBAR, etc.
The other issue The Wire makes is whether Ted is having a problem proving he is a US citizen. Now, that’s a problem we would love to have. We’re trying to prove we aren’t US persons or citizens. Ted may have to prove he is to ditch Canadian citizenship!
I speculate that he may not been registered as an American citizen when he was born and might be working thorough the paperwork to verify his US citizenship and then will renounce Canadian citizenship.
I like that the Wire showed how simple it is to renounce Canadian citizenship. It gave me a pang – can you imagine how happy we’d all be (in fact, how many of us would be reading this) if we could go to a website, download a form, fill it out, include a fee and send it off, knowing that’s all that was required to renounce US citizenship? To me, it really highlights one of the main differences between the two countries. Canada has no need, nor any desire, to call people traitors, or to hold them hostage for wanting to have the citizenship (only) of the country in which they spend their lives. Not that there’s much reason to have to renounce CDN citizenship – unless the country of residence doesn’t allow a dual citizenship.
Globe and Mail is asking Ted Cruz is he really wants to give up Canadian citizenship. We have everything he detests–gay marriage, gun control and socialized medicine. They didn’t mention that we also have no FATCA for Canadians living outside of Canada (although IRS would definitely claim Ted as a “US person” if he moved here).