u/comments83820

It's hard for me to do this because I do feel like many American employees have a sort of sociocultural expectation that customers will leave a dollar for a coffee, but I just couldn't do it today. A small victory.

I want to begin by saying I have tremendous sympathy for the applicants (mostly Americans) having their Canadian citizenship by descent retroactively evaluated. That said, as someone with some experience with these programs, I have some thoughts and observations that won't necessarily be comfortable, but I think will helpful. Here we go, no particular order:

1. Ordinary Canadians (including most politicians and the working-class people processing your applications) don't see you as "unrecognized citizens from birth," but as "foreigners applying for citizenship." Yes, the letter of the law says the former, but the latter is how it's interpreted by almost everyone.
2. Think of what Canada is offering you as a "gift" or "privilege" rather than a "right." This goes back to my first point. Acquiring a second citizenship in another powerful rich country (whether Ireland, Italy, Canada, or Greece) simply by virtue of one's bloodline (having never lived in that country) is an incredible privilege, and significantly easier than how most people will acquire citizenship in foreign countries. Trade entitlement for humility. This includes when you post about the policy online.
3. Many (the majority of?) Canadians do not think you should have this citizenship. They think it's a bit cheeky for someone whose great-great-grandfather migrated from Quebec to Maine to be able to easily and quickly acquire Canadian citizenship. These people are thinking about how they've their entire lives in Canada and how their citizenship is deeply personal them. Or they're thinking about how vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees -- actually living in Canada and paying taxes -- struggle to acquire citizenship while privileged Americans simply submit some documents online and collect a passport at the consulate. Again, I'm being descriptive here -- not personally judging.
4. Be careful about how you discuss your citizenship online. It is intensely offensive for Canadians (or Irish, Italians, Greeks, whatever) to hear that your citizenship is a "back-up plan" because you "fear Donald Trump" or want "options for your children." Canadians don't see their citizenship as a "back-up plan" and they think it's unfair that you can have a back-up plan with their passport while they don't have the same access to the United States (indeed the U.S. government is threatening their country with annexation).
5. It is crazy to think you can submit uncertified documents from genealogy websites in support of your application. No other citizenship-by-descent program in a wealthy country would tolerate this -- they only accept certified copies or originals (and usually with the hassle and expense of an apostille on top).
6. The people acquiring citizenship through great-great-grandparents or even great-great-great grandparents should be especially humble and respectful. Canadians view their claims as especially suspect and problematic. And when these applicants get loud and entitled, they can wreck the program for those with more reasonable grandparent or great-grandparent claims (i.e. people who actually knew their Canadian ancestor while alive).
7. The U.S. is a uniquely litigious country. Flooding Canada with lawsuits -- or threatening them -- will not help your case. Rather, it will accelerate the end of the generous policy that currently exists.
8. Yes, Canada can (and maybe will) find a way to end this program or impose metering (slowing processing) or restrictions on applicants. Refer back to my points about public opinion and politicians. "But the law" or "but the Canadian constitution" won't stand in the way of bureaucratic or legal "innovation" to slow a flood of applications.
9. Most (the majority of?) Canadians do not see Americans as oppressed and endangered like Ukrainians, Haitians, or working-class Mexicans fleeing cartel violence. Expressing fear of this-or-that-Trump-tweet won't carry much currency in Canada.
10. Canada is a big country, but only has a handful of economically significant cities. When Canadians see tens of thousands of Americans (with a lot more money than they have) applying for citizenship, they worry about housing prices. The average American can outbid the average Canadian for a nice house in suburban Toronto or Vancouver. And because Canada is an English-speaking country adjacent to the United States, a lot of American applicants will actually move there (unlike, say, applicants for Greek or Italian citizenship).
11. Citizenship lines must be meticulously documented. When you don't have a document, you must document why you can't find it. Yes, this may take a lot of time because certain Canadian bureaucracies and small towns won't drop what they're doing to help you. The people who thought they could get around this reality are now seeing their citizenship questioned by the authorities.
12. It was totally unrealistic for early applicants to go from application to passport in a few months. New applicants should expect years. If a significant number of Americans start suing the Canadian government to speed this up, expect even more domestic Canadian opposition to the policy.
13. Under the tightened rules (that's what the letters clearly signal), some people with great-great or great-grandparents simply won't be able to claim citizenship. The documents won't exist to effectively document a line. It is what it is.
14. If courts, small towns, and government agencies are flooded with citizenship by descent work (requests for documents, letters, etc.), the political and public opinion tide will absolutely turn against this policy, whether it's "the law" or not. There are so many eligible Americans that these requests can quickly become the majority of the work in some agencies and towns -- when that happens, the tide turns against the policy even more quickly.

I hope this helps. Again, I genuinely feel for the people who are upset now, but think many of them have entitled mindsets that are going to cause a lot of problems for themselves -- and others -- moving forward.

Charlottesville is an extremely prosperous city. It has an elite university, major medical center, and is surrounded by affluent towns and rural areas. But, on a recent visit to the Downtown Mall, it felt incredibly degraded compared to the 2000s. There were a lot of empty storefronts, low-quality businesses in places, significantly more unsheltered individuals, and the infamous hotel remains unfinished. Meanwhile, condos adjacent to the pedestrian mall cost about the same as Central Paris apartments. For comparison's sake, the Madison, Wisconsin pedestrian mall -- similar-sized city with an elite university -- doesn't seem to have as many issues. What is wrong? And what can be done? Thoughts?

I'm traveling to Denmark soon with family (parents, sister, and her four children). I'm an EU citizen, but they are all third-country nationals from a low-risk, non-EU country. Would it be cheeky to ask if they could go through the EU line with me? I understand they'll have to do EES, but it appears that CPH isn't using kiosks and just processing non-EU citizens at the passport control desk. Given there are 7 of them and one of me, I think it might sound a bit ridiculous to even ask?

If I'm an adult buying a 3-day pass inside the Vasttrafik app, can I also buy and activate multiple child passes at the same time on the same phone? Or just my own adult pass? Tack!

(A secondary question: in 2020 when I visited alone, I couldn't get the app to work with my American credit card/foreign phone and had to buy a pass at the 7/11 instead -- I'm curious if anyone knows if that might have been resolved.)

I just did a new-patient visit at a new dentist because I needed a cleaning and it was the only way to get one. Exam, x-rays, etc. The dentist said most of my mouth was 2s and 3s, but he claimed to find find some 5s and 6s around wisdom teeth/back molars. I had no cavities and minimal bleeding. Gums fine.

A few questions:

1. He said that new dental guidance is to do SRP of the entire mouth when there are only deep pockets in the very back. Is that true?
2. Is it possible they could be "pseudo-pockets"? In other words, not as alarming as true 5/6 mm pockets?
3. He still did a basic descaling/cleaning of my mouth. Is that a sign that maybe it's not as bad as he thought?
4. He offered to do the entire deep cleaning today in one session (with a discount for taking it instead of the basic cleaning) instead of the basic scaling and polish (that I accepted). I found that a bit strange given I've always heard SRP is a multipe-visit procedure and the office was only open for a couple more hours?

What do you think?

I really appreciate any help. Thanks!