First, let me acknowledge that this is an unusual question in this sub, but I’m hoping the sub may be able to help.
I’m an American in the process of trying to get German Citizenship by descent. Basically, a lot of my family, including my Grandfather, moved to Canada after WWII after being disillusioned with Germany. Based on passport stamps, my grandfather arrived in Quebec as a landed immigrant on June 20, 1953, then proceeded on to the US as a US permanent resident on March 30, 1955. He later became a US citizen.
On r/GermanCitizenship, I asked question if this had the potential to cause problems, since the German government may have concerns that he became a Canadian citizen first (thus breaking the uninterrupted chain of German citizenship prior to my father‘s birth), and unfortunately the consensus was yes. I was advised to pursue a Certificate of Non-Existence from Canada certifying no citizenship records existed for my grandfather, using the process outlined in the page above.
Here‘s the problem: my grandfather has only been deceased about 8 years, and records do not become available to people other than his estate‘s executor until he has been deceased 20 years. I‘ve spoken to the executor and he really doesn’t want to go through the request process. As an American, the wait times are also longer and it sounds like it may take as long as 2 years for the records to be made available if he submitted today.
-Has anyone run into similar issues and was there any kind of workaround? Because he was there such a short time, it sounds almost impossible that he could have become a citizen but I still need to prove it conclusively.
-Are there any ideas for alternate proof or evidence from Canada that I could get without going through the formal CONE process?
-Has anyone had success in similar situations of working with a Canadian lawyer to provide an affidavit that an individual could not have been a Canadian citizen? If so, are there recommended firms or lawyers that can do it for a reasonable price?
I understand advice may be limited since this is of course not a sub focused on German citizenship specifically, but any advice that can be provided would help.
Thank you.