Renouncing British citizenship
 

Has anyone on here done it? I'm contemplating it on becoming an Australian citizen. I feel nothing for the UK and everything for Australia which has been wonderful for me and my family. I'm presuming that if I do it it has no impact on my kids if they are ever foolish enough to contemplate living back in Britain?

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

You do not need to pick one citizenship, you are allowed both. Accordingly I cannot think of any upside to renouncing citizenship. What do you think it will achieve?

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

I agree...keep all doors open.

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

Belt and braces mate! You never know where life might lead you and you can keep both without any penalty so don't chuck it away. No one says you every have to go back to UK and you don't even need to renew your passport (although that is the wise move to take) until - if ever - you need it so it costs you nothing to retain. Never cut off options in this life!

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

I don't know why you would but I'm sure it's possible

I would imagine that you would be able to reclaim it if you changed your mind in the future - a birthright I suppose

Good luck

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

As others have said there's no upside to renouncing your British citizenship and plenty of downsides. Once you become an Australian citizen you don't have to renew your British passport if you don't want to and just use your Australian passport going forward. If you did want to go ahead and renounce your British citizenship then you can do so by completing Form RN and sending it to the Home Office. The current fee is £272. If you change your mind in future then your application to resume your citizenship will be at the discretion of the Home Secretary - there's no guarantee that you will be able to do so, especially if you did not have a good reason to give your citizenship.

Any children you have already had won't be affected by your renunciation but any children born in Australia after you renounce won't be British citizens unless their other parent was also born in the UK.

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

The only justifications for renunciation would be 1) to avoid tax, if you're a US citizen***, and b) to avoid being eligible for drafting into the army. ***Americans are taxed on their passports, not on their residence.

I was born Australian, lived there till I was 23, and travelled on my Oz passport for the next 40 years or so. Then I became a UK citizen by virtue of my domicile in this British colony (Cayman Islands), and have since let my Oz passport lapse. For no particular reason; I just couldn't be bothered renewing it. But the point is, that I can always get it back; one can always get a lapsed passport back, but not a renounced citizenship.

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

Just curious but where does this disdain for one's own country of origin come from?

£272 just to gain nothing but express one's negative emotions seems like a bad investment.

And an EU passport is still the best passport in the world to have (even if you believe it will no longer be a Union passport some years down the road). So why not just let it lapse and forget about the issue?

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

Second that. Also a firm believer that families should wherever possible share the same citizenship(s).
What if your children settle back in UK and you want to retire to be with them and your grandchildren?

We see posts here all the time where people leave OZ without getting citizenship as they will never go back. Then things change and they can no longer return when they want to.

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

I love Australia as much as any godzowner currently..... although that feeling does come in ebbs and waves... The most pro Australian I tend to feel is when I've just come back from visiting the UK. However that feeling tends to wane slightly over time and I get all nostalgic again.

Thing is I cant imagine any UK migrant enjoying Aus much more than me... I'd never contemplate renouncing my citizenship, purely on the basis that it entitles my Aus born kids to live there... and why restrict choices for my kids.

I can't see any value in renouncing citizenship at all. Although I will say I've not travelled on or held a UK passport in over 25 years.

Edit.... I think you could well be blaming past times in the UK for something else in your life mate, which you could well benefit from looking at far more intensively..... could be wrong, but I doubt it.

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

Yes, as all have suggested it would be a silly move to renounce citizenship purely as an act of disappointment, defiance or whatever. You never know when it might come in handy so what's the point throwing it away?

http://i.imgur.com/eR4Hzzw.jpg

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

There are also cases where UK passport holders are treated better for visas on arrival than Australian ones because of the visa reciprocity system. Argentina being one off of the top of my head.

Australia also don't have a brilliant track record of helping their citizens in trouble overseas either - It would always be nice to have another embassy to fall back on...


S

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

Ditto Brazil. No visa required for UK passport holders, yet Australian passport holders do require one (except during the Olympics).

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

I remember when I got married, we honeymooned in Africa (Zimbabwe/Zambia/Zanzibar/Tanganyika etc:) and I asked my wife if she would like a British Passport, as I assumed it would be easier to travel through Africa with one?....she asked the travel company and they said, don't do it...travelling through Africa (ex colonies etc:) is straight forward on an Aussie passport and if you travel on a British Passport, they make you apply for Visa's/permission etc: ...as it turns out, quite true...apparently, all the previous domains are not as sorry that we left, as we would like to believe!.....so I've let my passport expire, I can always renew it, if I want to...I was going to do mine and the kids, as then they would have been able to travel around Europe easily, but now post Brexit, I'll have to do what everyone else is doing and try to get an Irish passport!

Re: Renouncing British citizenship
 

As one who helps to organise that assistance I would echo this - Britain is usually more willing/quicker to assist with repatriation etc thanAustralia.