Historical women's re-acquisition by election (s.11(2))

CA-RST-02 is the historical women's re-acquisition route under section 11(2) of the Citizenship Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29. It is a narrow, gender-remedial provision that lets a woman who lost British-subject status before 1 January 1947 solely because of her marriage, or because of her husband's acquisition of a foreign nationality, acquire Canadian citizenship simply by giving the Minister written notice of an election. There was legally no such thing as Canadian citizenship before 1 January 1947 (the first Canadian Citizenship Act, S.C. 1946, c. 15, took effect that day); before then a person born or naturalized in Canada held British-subject status. Under common-law and pre-1947 nationality rules, a married woman's nationality followed her husband's, so many women lost British-subject status on marriage or on the husband's naturalization elsewhere. Section 11(2) cures that historic disadvantage. Unlike the general resumption route (CA-RST-01, s.11(1)), it requires no permanent-residence step, no physical-presence test, and no oath: citizenship is acquired immediately upon the election. This is a low-volume, era-anchored remedy distinct from naturalization, descent, and ordinary resumption (as of 2026-06-01).

The Citizenship Act prescribes the s.11(2) acquisition as occurring by election (written notice), and no distinct statutory fee for the s.11(2) notice itself is established in the verified primary fee schedule. The fees that are relevant in practice are the downstream proof-of-status fees set out in the current IRCC fee list (date-modified 2026-04-30): a citizenship certificate / proof of citizenship costs CAD 75.00, and a search of citizenship records costs CAD 75.00. For comparison and to avoid mis-citation, the ordinary adult (18+) citizenship grant total is CAD 653.00 (CAD 530 processing + CAD 123 Right of Citizenship Fee, the RCF having risen to CAD 123 effective 2026-03-31), the minor grant is CAD 100.00, resumption under s.11(1) for an adult is CAD 530.00, and standard renunciation under s.9 is CAD 100.00 — none of which are the s.11(2) figure. Because s.11(2) is an election rather than a paid grant, applicants should confirm at filing whether any fee attaches to the notice and budget for the CAD 75 proof-of-citizenship certificate to document the acquired status. Legacy figures such as a CAD 630 grant total or a CAD 100/CAD 119.75 RCF are stale and must not be cited as current (fees as of 2026-06-01; RCF indexed annually under the Service Fees Act).

The controlling provision is section 11(2) of the Citizenship Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29 (administered federally by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada under the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration; s.1, s.2(1)). Section 11(2) provides that a woman who, before 1 January 1947, ceased to be a British subject by reason only of (a) her marriage to an alien, or (b) the acquisition by her husband of the nationality or citizenship of a country other than Canada, and who would have been a citizen had the FORMER Act (the Canadian Citizenship Act, S.C. 1946, c. 15) come into force IMMEDIATELY BEFORE the marriage (or, as applicable, immediately before the husband's acquisition of the foreign nationality), acquires citizenship on giving the Minister notice of her intention to do so. The counterfactual entitlement is therefore measured against the former (1947) Act as if it had been in force just before the marital/derivative-nationality event — NOT against the modern 1977 Act's coming-into-force or any 1977-02-15 reference point. The provision must be read against the historical framework: no Canadian citizenship existed before 1947-01-01 (Canadian Citizenship Act, S.C. 1946, c. 15), and Newfoundland and Labrador residents acquired Canadian citizenship only on union with Canada on 1 April 1949 (built into the live statute at s.3(1.01)). The current modern statute originates as S.C. 1974-75-76, c. 108 (in force 1977-02-15) and was revised into R.S.C. 1985, c. C-29, but that 1977 commencement date is the era anchor of the live remedy, not the counterfactual reference point. Section 11(2) sits in Part I of the Act among the acquisition/resumption rules, separate from the s.11(1) resumption mechanism.