NewEnglandExPat

Hi there, Ex pat here....currently living in the USA. I am new to the site and so I want to apologize in advance for my lack of knowledge or ignorance as it pertains to getting British passports for my kids who just turned 17 a few weeks ago. I have both of there passport applications filled out with the exception of section 10 for the counter signer. I had asked one of my kids teachers to fill that out for them but she came back and not only said that she didn't have a US passport and even if she did, she would feel uncomfortable listing such personal details on an application that wasn't hers. To be honest, I do have a really hard time with understanding this section as it relates to the type of person who is eligible to fill this section.

Correct me if I am wrong but I did once before look into applying for my kids to get these passports when they were 2 and I swear there was not this requirement for the counter signer to list a US passport ID.

I really don't understand why this passport application has to be so hard...getting a US passport is no where near as arduous.

For the purposes of getting my children british citizenship through me, is it better for them for me to try and get it before they turn 18 or just let them apply for it once they become adults......I always thought that the former would be easier than the latter but I could be wrong.

any advice would be very much appreciated

CanadianSpruce

Assuming you were born in the UK, your children were British the day they were born. It doesn't really make much of a difference when they get a UK passport.

BritInParis

For the purposes of a passport you are considered an adult once you reach 16 so the 17 year old has already missed the boat on that. Consular birth registration might be preferable and then your children can decide to get their British passport themselves as and well it is required.

NewEnglandExPat

Thanks for that information........but I have additional questions. I followed the link and it is stating that the fee is 150 pounds for the birth registration each which is the near enough the same as the cost for the passport. If I was to go this route, would it make it easier for them to get their UK passports down the line equivalent to say getting a passport renewal or will it make no difference especially as it will be their first UK passport. To be honest, I ask all these questions because I recently saw a documentary from the UK about the consequences of Brexit on getting a UK passport............the people in the program were kids who were born in the UK, have lived in the UK for all their short lives but have foreign legal resident parents and they couldn't get a UK passport which was crazy to me......so this is why I question the notion that with my kids being british through me ( I was born in the UK) that they won't have any problems getting their passport.

CanadianSpruce

The difference with those kids is their parents weren't British in the first place and being born in the UK isn't good enough to make you British. You need to have a British parent or have a parent that was considered settled (and until fairly recently EU residents in the UK weren't considered to be settled for this purpose).

poida

I also saw that program on Channel 4 as well, they focused on people who didn't have automatic British citizenship rights and the cost and difficulty in obtaining citizenship. If your children are British by descent then they won't have to worry about it as long as they can prove it, which is possibly what I gather you are worried about?

The link above lists all the advantages to having a Consular Birth Certificate. It might be worth thinking about the disadvantages to not having one, such as if one were to lose their passport and needed to apply again from scratch, it's much easier to just send off one document (birth certificate) rather than gather foreign birth certificate, parents birth certificate, parents marriage certificate etc. to proved citizenship.

NewEnglandExPat

I do think that is inherently unfair to the children born in the UK but I guess the law is the law............so it sounds that my kids should be good to go but can one of you answer if possible my previous question regarding registering their birth with the consular as opposed to just applying now for the passports.
Thanks again for your advice.....much appreciated

BritInParis

Actually it's twice as expensive as a passport but unlike a passport a consular birth certificate doesn't expire after five years and you can wait a year and then order the actual certificate for less than £10 rather than £50. Unless you have a need for British passports for children, i.e. you are planning on moving to the UK, you make frequent visits or you expect you may need to move back quickly for a family emergency, then they are little more than an expensive novelty since your children will legally be required to use their US passports to exit and enter the United States.

The UK hasn't operated a pure jus soli citizenship policy since 1983. Birthright citizenship is not the norm outside the Americas - no country in Europe offers it and the United States and Canada are the only 'first world' countries in the world that still have it.

A consular birth certificate would ensure that, regardless of circumstances (your premature death, your house burning down, etc..), your children would always have access to cheap and replaceable evidence of their British citizenship. You can register their births now as an insurance policy and worry about getting British passports as and when they need them.

Actually the other way round. It used to be that an EU/EEA parent merely needed to be exercising their Treaty rights in the UK, e.g. working, for the child to automatically be a British citizen at birth. More recently they need to a permanent resident (five years residence) in order for the child to receive British citizenship which brings it line with the requirements for non-EEA parents who also generally need five years residence to obtain Indefinite Leave to Remain. A child, providing they were born and have always lived in the UK, can be registered as a British citizen at the age of ten regardless of the immigration status of their parents.

NewEnglandExPat

Thank you everyone for your great insight and advice........I think I have been in the US too long because I honestly thought that if you were born in a country, you were automatically a citizen regardless of circumstance....but as you said this side of the pond is different in this regard. Anyway, there is no great rush for my kids to get their UK passports.......my whole impetus for this was that I wanted to make sure they had the opportunity to live and work in the UK through me if they ever wanted to, sometime in the future. I will take the consular route and get them their consular birth certificates.

cheers