britchick95

and I would like for him to have dual nationality. I am British, the father is American and we are married. How do I go about this?

fatbrit

Where was child born?

britchick95

The US.

fatbrit

So..he's already a dual citizen.

To formalize US cit, apply for US SSN and US passport

To formalize UK cit, apply to register birth at consulate and for UK passport

Job's done!

fatbrit

P.S.

And have a read @ www.richw.org/dualcit for any future issues you may have.

Joe Feise

britchick95 wrote on 08/25/06 13:24:

    >> Where was child born?
    >
    > The US.
    >


So the child most likely already has dual citizenship. The child has US
citizenship for sure, as per the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. He may
have British citizenship as well, because of the mother being British.

-Joe
--
I am not a lawyer.
For reliable advice, consult a competent immigration attorney.

Rich Wales

"britchick95" wrote:

> Just had a baby.... and I would like for him to have dual
> nationality. I am British, the father is American and we
> are married. How do I go about this?

Since (as you said in another posting) your baby was born in the
US, he definitely has US citizenship according to US law.

Since you are a British citizen, your baby =probably= also has
(or is entitled to claim) British citizenship according to British
law.

If you (the British parent) are British "otherwise than by descent"
-- which generally means that you were born or naturalized in the
UK -- then your son is definitely a British citizen.

If you are British "by descent" (meaning that you were born to
a British parent outside the UK), then your baby may or may not
have an entitlement to British citizenship. As I understand the
current British law on this subject, you can register your baby
with British officials before his first birthday, and have him
recognized as a British citizen -- provided you, yourself, lived
in the UK for at least three years at some time in your past.
But please note, in this case, that you must register him within
the first 12 months after his birth, or else he could lose out
on his chance to have British citizenship.

You would probably want to contact British consular officials in
any case and register your baby with them as soon as you can,
because otherwise they won't know about him or his claim to
British citizenship. As for your son's US citizenship, this
status should be adequately substantiated by his official birth
certificate (issued by the vital records bureau of the state in
which he was born).

Note that your son's (indisputable) claim to US citizenship is
based on US law, whereas his (probable) claim to British citi-
zenship is based on British law. This is how dual/multiple
citizenship works -- two (or more) countries, each acting based
solely on its own laws, and ignoring the laws of other countries,
each separately and independently decide that some given indi-
vidual is one of its citizens.

Under the current laws of both the US and the UK, if your son has
both citizenships, he can keep both for life. Some people may
tell you (or may already have told you) that a "born dual" child
needs to choose one and only one citizenship when he/she grows up,
but this is an old urban myth with no current basis in fact.

Rich Wales [email protected] http://www.richw.org/dualcit/
*DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, professional immigration consultant,
or consular officer. My comments are for discussion purposes only and
are not intended to be relied upon as legal or professional advice.

hago

Rich Wales wrote:
    > Under the current laws of both the US and the UK, if your son has
    > both citizenships, he can keep both for life. Some people may
    > tell you (or may already have told you) that a "born dual" child
    > needs to choose one and only one citizenship when he/she grows up,
    > but this is an old urban myth with no current basis in fact.

Just note that this is not the case of all countries - some indeed have
young people loose their citizenship at for example age 21 if the YP
cannot demostrate close connection to that country. But this is not the
case for neither of the US or theUK, so does not apply to the OP's
child.

Hanne