COMMUNITY SERVICES

STATUS REGISTRATION

The Community Services Department at the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council administers the Indian Registry for three Northern Shuswap Bands: Stswēceḿc Xget’tem First Nation, Xatśūll First Nation, and Williams Lake First Nation.

The function of the Indian Registry Program is to record any additions, changes and deletions to the Indian Registry. These include registering births, deaths, marriages, divorces, name changes, transfers from one Band to another or correcting any existing errors on the Indian Registry.

The Indian Registry office at the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council also issues Certificates of Indian Status (status cards) and has applications for Indian Registry through Bill C-31. NSTC does not have the resources to do family tree researching, as this is a time consuming process.

Registering Children

Registering children on the Indian Registry is entirely voluntary. Children are not automatically registered just because their parents are registered. What is required for registration is a copy of the child’s birth certificate. The birth certificate must have some inclusion of parentage. If the parentage is unknown or unstated on the birth certificate, other evidence may be utilized. This includes, statutory declarations, census records, court documents, church, school and hospital records, and band council resolutions. Along with the birth certificate, the child’s parents must sign a consent form (available at Northern Shuswap Tribal Council) to indicate which parent the child will be registered with (a child cannot be registered with both parents). If one parent is non-native, they must still sign the consent form. Children not registered with the Indian Registry are not covered under the non-insured health benefits which include medical services, dental care, prescription drugs, optometrist visits and vision care. If you have not registered your child, you will have to pay for these services. After all the necessary papers have been received at the Northern Shuswap Tribal Council, it takes approximately one month for the child to be officially registered on the Indian Affairs registry.

Status Card Information (** NOTE: NEW Payment & Policy Information as of July 19th, 2018 – SEE below **)

NOTE: All Certificates of Indian Status now include a renewal date

The purpose of issuing Status Cards is to verify that the cardholder is a registered Indian. Status Cards are only useful if the photographs are current. Some registered Indians have been denied services because some service providers have questioned whether their Status Cards are still valid. To remedy this situation, all status cards issued to individuals under the age of 18 will expire three years after being issued, and for those over the age of 18, cards must be renewed every five years.

To obtain a Status Card, One piece of Primary ID or Two pieces of Secondary ID – one with Digitized Photo;

CATEGORY 1 – Primary ID

  • Valid Canadian Passport
  • New Plastic CIS issued after April 2002

CATEGORY 2 – Secondary ID:

  • Certificate of Birth
  • Certificate of Marriage or Divorce
  • Provincial Health Card
  • Provincial Identification Card
  • Drivers License
  • Employee ID with Digitized Photo
  • Student ID with Digitized Photo
  • Firearms License
  • Current CIS Card (cannot be expired more that a month)

The above ID cards must be presented when applying for a Status Card. Just knowing your SIN or Driver’s License number is not accepted as ID. Photocopied ID or Certified Copied ID will not be accepted.

For minor card ID, a Birth Certificate, Medical Card, Baptismal or student card may be used. The identification policy is strictly enforced.

There is a new policy for issuing Indian Registry numbers to children. Now, when a new number is generated it is independent of the parent’s number; previously children’s numbers were dependent numbers of their parents (02,03 etc). Now the number a child receives is a permanent number and no new number is issued when the child turns 18. For those children currently with a number ending in 02, 03 etc., this is now their permanent number.

** NEW July 19, 2018 ** – For Stswēceḿc Xget’tem First Nation, Xatśūll First Nation, and Williams Lake First Nation members, there is no fee. For Canim Lake Band members there is a $5 fee. For persons/members of any other Band, there is a $20.00 fee to obtain a Status Card.

https://nstq.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/IR-Notice-Updated-July-19.pdf

For more information please contact:

Sonya Charley
Registry Clerk
Email: rimsclerk@nstq.org
Phone: (250) 392-7361, Ext. 204