smurtaza

Hi,

What will be the status of the child born in UK to an Australian parent?Does the child will gain British Citizenship.The parent is one of my friend and he is there on work permit six months or less.

Please suggest and comment

Thanks,

RachelH

as far as I know if you are born in the UK you are a British Citizen, but if you have an Aussie parent you can also get Aussie citizenship.

Whitby whaler

Best of both worlds

JAJ

Not true, sorry. Since 1 January 1983, at least one parent must be a British citizen or permanent resident.

Also not always true - if Australian parent is a citizen by descent, then that parent must have accumulated 2 years presence in Australia.

ridds

JAJ is correct - need one parent to be a British citizen or permanent resident. Right of abode suffices. You can get more info here. Once the child is born fill in the form 118 and lodge at the Australian High Commission in London - takes about 5 days to process and you get a certificate of citizenship. You can then use this to get the Australian passport.

OzSheila

My 3 children are Australian by descent - having been born to Oz citizens resident in the UK. Now that we reside in Australia when/if/how can they claim "pure" Citizenship?

TIA

JAJ

Once they have completed a total of 2 years physical presence, they then have the same rights to pass on their citizenship to an overseas born child as an Australian born or naturalised person.

There is no form to fill out and DIAC's movement records should make the compliance with the 2 year rule clear. However, don't rely on government records, so they should be sure to keep their own records of their time in Australia. Schooling records, old passports (you can ask for Australian passports to be stamped in and out) and so on.

OzSheila

Thanks for that. Just wanted to clarify position because we had been told that had we remained in the UK and they (by chance) married another Australian citizen by descent any children they subsequently went on to have would not be enitled to any form of Australian citizenship. Of course this is true as the law stands today and in future the position may well alter.

JAJ

That would be true if the other Australian parent hadn't clocked up 2 years in Australia. There is an exception to the 2 year rule (for Australian parent) if child has no other nationality.

And of course children born in Australia would be Australians.

Where an Australian citizen by descent has an overseas born child who is not entitled to Australian citizenship, the child can be brought to live in Australia and naturalised once settled in Australia. Residence requirement does not apply to children under 16.

James516

I'm in a similar position, as my English wife and I are planning to have kids in the UK in the near future. She is a UK citizen by birth, I am a NZ citizen by birth, Australian by naturalisation and UK by naturalisation.

Any kids we have in the UK will I understand be automatically UK citizens, and will be entitled to Australian citizenship once I fill in the appropriate registration at Australia House.

Presumably they will also be entitled to NZ citizenship by a similar registration at NZ House.

Also, my wife's mother is Irish by birth, so they may have some entitlement to Irish citizenship - I need to check on that, as my wife herself has not lived in Ireland or claimed Irish citizenship.

With all this talk of citizenship, I'm finding out the difficulty of have multiple passports - I have to keep them all current! I'm going to Oz for a holiday later this year, and can only enter the country on an Australian passport as I am a citizen - they won't put a visa in my UK one doubly annoying as I've laready had one application rejected as Oz likes different size photos to the UK passport office, and trying to get them right is a pain.

RachelH

Apologies - as I said "as far as I know" - obviously thats not far!

sparkley23

2 years physical presence, does this include therefore, say a 3 week holiday?

Lilywhite

I've recently been sorting out new passports for my lot who are all dual citizens (Brit/Aus) and was asked for my passport when I originally entered UK. This was 18 years ago. OH has also had to find his 25 year old Aus passport.

So make sure you keep your old passports safe.

JAJ

Yes it does.

JAJ

Never a smart idea to throw out old documentation, however in this situation if they really had been lost, the Passport Office could not have refused you a passport. But they might have made a fuss, and you might have had to get your MP to intervene etc.