What is the difference between residency and citizenship?
Sometimes it is difficult for people to understand the fundamental difference between these two legal statuses and the rights they have being residents and citizens of a state.
Being a "resident" and a "citizen" of a certain country is NOT the same.
The holder of a residency permit has the legal right to live, work, travel, or study in the country, while still holding a foreign citizenship and passport. The residency is time-limited, and as a rule, you have to maintain your residency while adhering to numerous requirements in order to keep the residency valid.
As a Permanent Resident you are not eligible to vote in federal or provincial elections. You could lose your Permanent Resident's status for a conviction of a criminal offence.
On the other hand, a citizen is a person who is acknowledged as a legal member of a community, usually a nation. The citizenship is good for a lifetime and cannot be revoked unless there is substantial evidence of a crime against the state.
The citizens of a community bear the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities defined by law. Some of the main rights of a citizen are political rights, right to work, and access to education and healthcare.
As a privilege, a citizen of a country can expect protection from the state s/he is a citizen of. Widely known duties of a citizen of a state are payment of taxes and military service.
There are four ways legally to obtain a citizenship: through birth, marriage, family relations, and granting of citizenship via "naturalization".
High Net Worth Immigration is promoting immigrant investor programs through which you can obtain citizenship for reputable countries via naturalization.
For further details on the immigration programs, please refer to the HNW Immigration Countries section on the left.
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