A woman who has lived in New Brunswick her entire life is learning the government may not consider her to be a Canadian citizen.

She was born 61 years ago in a hospital across the border in Maine, because it was the closest hospital to her family home, and returned to New Brunswick the following day.

“I have lived here all my life. I have worked here. I have children here. I married here, and I was only in the States to be born and left that next day,” says Doris McKay, who runs a hair salon in the basement of her Petitcodiac home.

McKay says a friend recently convinced her to apply for a passport so they could cross the border into Maine for a little shopping spree.

But when she arrived at the Service Canada office in Moncton, she learned there was a problem with her application.

“He checked it over to make sure it was alright and he said ‘but you are missing something.’ I said ‘what am I missing?’ He said ‘proof of citizenship’ and I said ‘I have a medicare card, I have a social insurance card. I have worked here, I have lived here all my life.’”

However, there are details required on the citizenship application that McKay doesn’t have, such as information about her grandparents. She says there is no one in her family still living that can fill in the blanks.

Millie Cain says she can’t understand why her friend wouldn’t be considered a Canadian citizen.

“She told me about it. I said ‘OK, that is kind of crazy, being neither American nor Canadian,’” says Cain.

Immigration lawyer Nicole Druckman says recent legal changes might make it easier for McKay to obtain her Canadian citizenship.

“Canadian-born parents, and if that is the case then, in fact, because of changes in law in 2009, because she was born after 1947, she is in fact Canadian,” says Druckman.

Druckman recommends consulting a lawyer for help with the application process.

McKay says she isn’t sure what her next step will be.

“Undefined is correct. That is a good word. I tell all my clients, you’ve got a hairdresser that is a nobody.”

She hopes to resolve the issue soon so she can travel across the border, and also because she will need the documents to collect her Canada Pension and Old Age Security.

With files from CTV Atlantic's David Bell