jonwake

Hi,
I'm British with a Canadian wife, and have lived in the US since 1999.
I have children with US passports (and born in US) who I would like to get British passports for.

I believe that I don't need to get British citizenship first but can just apply here:


https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

(or through form C2), but I'm not certain.
Any advice appreciated,
thanks
Jon

Jerseygirl

Welcome to BE Jon.

I have moved your thread into our General US forum as the US Immigration forum is for questions about US visas and citizenship.

HKG3

Jon,

If you were born or naturalize in the UK, you can pass down your British Citizenship to your children born overseas. All you need to do is to apply for their British passports using the link you had above.

However, a note to the OP - your children are British Citizens by descent, which means that they CANNOT automatically pass down their British Citizenship to their next generation (the OP's grandchildren) who are born outside of the UK.

Pulaski

Assuming he is British other than by descent (born in the UK, or naturalized, or one of a few other ways), then he has already passed his British citizenship to his children, in other words it happens automatically, and he doesn't need to "apply for citizenship" for them, they are already British.

Rete

And where did HKG3 say that he had to apply for citizenship for the children? Too much sun?

Pulaski

You are correct. I completed my post without double-checking in what he had said.

ian-mstm

C'mon you two... kiss and make up! You've been on each other all night - well, so to speak!



Ian

jonwake

Thanks for the quick replies, and yes I was born in Britain so it seems pretty straightforward.
The instructions say they need the kids' US passports, but I think I can send photocopies of the complete documents.

Thanks again for the help!
Jon

jonwake

Thanks for moving my original post!

MarylandNed

Correct - you can send photocopies of the US passport.

You might also want to consider British consular birth registration.

https://www.gov.uk/register-a-birth

This registers the birth with the British authorities. You can also obtain a consular birth cert although it's quite expensive. The cheaper option is to just register the birth (without applying for the consular birth cert) and then obtain a much cheaper birth cert from the GRO in the UK. The GRO birth cert won't be available until usually the September in the calendar year following the calendar year of registration. For example, if you register anytime in 2017 then the GRO birth cert could be applied for beginning in September of 2018.

malch

I too am British born with a US born son. Brexit reduces the incentive to get a British/EC passport but I'd still like to keep his options open and get one at some point in the future, maybe when he reaches 18 and may have more interest in attending a British university (he's currently 11).

Is there a risk of losing this entitlement if I delay? Specifically, can he still apply for a British passport by himself if I kicked the proverbial bucket?

Pulaski

Not really, but collecting and presenting the evidence would get harder, perhaps much harder.

kateinbrooklyn

I did it for my US born daughter last year. It was really fast and took less than 2 weeks to receive her British passport, plus my passport and documents, back. I believe the process is the same for fathers as it is for mothers.

malch

That was my guess too. Thank you!

I shall postpone my demise forthwith :-)

BritInParis

An excellent example of where consular birth registration would future-proof your son's British inheritance.