Paperwork

A friend’s family emigrated from Scotland to Canada when my friend was 3 years old. His parents, British citizens, became Canadian citizens just for the asking. My friend always believed he was Canadian. When he
Was in his 30s he discovered that he was supposed to have done something to confirm citizenship when he became an adult. It took him a couple of years to get confirmed.

Years later lost his citizenship card. He still had his passport but it took him over a year to get a replacement citizenship card. (All of the records were on paper files that had to be pulled from archives.)

Then he went five years without using his Social Insurance Number (like a US social security number) and it was made dormant. Another year to get it reactivated.

There are so many documentary matters that we take for granted when they work, but they can be a real problem when they don’t work smoothly.