dogboy

Hiya - like alot of us, I've been reading the forum for a while, but never got around to joining till now. Some great stuff on here and has been a help to us.

Anyway, I moved to Edmonton with my 'common law wife' a few months ago. She is 6 months pregnant and we are unsure if the baby will be born Canadian or English. We are in the assumption that it will be dual nationality, but I thought there may be some folks on here that have had kids in Canada and could answer it for us.

Our background - We applied for the PR 15 months ago and rather than wait, I applied for a few jobs via the internet. I landed one in Edmonton as an Estimator (in the oil/engineering industry) and we are here on a work permit, waiting for the PR green light. We made one mistake and applied for the PR in my partners name and not mine, as I assume with me having a job it could have been completed quicker.

So far so good - Edmonton has proved to be a great place and we are having a house built, so should be here for a good few years yet!

Steve_P

Congratulations upon your upcoming new addition to your family.

To the best of my knowledge your child will be a Canadian, as to whether he/she will have dual nationality I don't know. I don't know what the UK's policy is on children born abroad.

Other who have gone through the experience will perhaps be able to shed more light on the issue.

Cheers
Steve

Butch Cassidy

I have feeling that the fact the OP is on a work permit may affect the nationality of the child. ie the child will not automatically be Canadian as the parents are essentially on a working holiday.

iaink

Congratulations.

Kid will be Canadian, no question. Born in Canada, get a canadian birth certificate, end of story.

Also will be british too as it will have british parents, however there is a bit more to do to get the proper paperwork, but its covered on the BHC website.

http://www.britishhighcommission.gov...=1113060107121

We havent bothered with all that with our two born here, there seems no hurry, and unless they want to work in Europe when they grow up, we cant see any point spending all that money when a canadian passport will do just fine. If we ever move back to the UK then we will have to rethink.

dogboy

Thanks for the info - I'll check it out. Canadian or British, he/she will still be wearing an England kit come the next world cup!!!

Mans

congratulations

My understanding is same as Iaink...... child will be Canadian but can apply for British passport too if parents (at least oneof them,i think) was born in England. This could be useful for education eg university should your child want to study in England as would be treated as a home student as far as fees are concerned

good luck
Mans

Biiiiink

I was born in Britain, in fact held only a British passport at the time of going to uni but had to pay overseas fees for part of my course as I'd lived abroad for 1 of the previous 3yrs. Home fees are about residency, not nationality.

dobbing

Congratulations to you both.
I gave birth to our little boy 7 weeks ago. We left Canada because of the cost of the birth by c-section as insurance did not cover an elective section.

Get ready for the night feeds.. I spoke to soon needs one now...

iaink

Congratulations, the night feeds pass eventually...then you get into teething

Offspring #2 was 6 months yesterday. How the time flies!

Cake tonight

Mans

Not sure, but is it still not much cheaper to be British overseas than an International student!

rgds
Mans

Biiiiink

Not afaik - these days it seems to be one fee scale for UK/EU students, and the international fee scale for everyone else. It's all based on residency. Loads of other advantages to dual citizenship, but sadly cheaper fees isn't one

JAJ

It's based on citizenship *and* residency - ie, residence isn't enough if you are only temporary in the UK.

JAJ

A British parent is not enough for British citizenship, if someone is born outside the United Kingdom. There are complications if parents are not UK born or naturalised, or in some cases if the father is not married to the mother.

Plenty of people who "don't bother to get a passport" get a nasty surprise later on when they find out their child isn't British after all, and it's too late to apply for registration.

Biiiiink

If you're only in the UK for the purpose of full-time education in your qualifying residency period you mean? I agree. But I'm not sure that having a British passport would help you get home fees in that scenario, I thought that was an option for non-UK EU citizens only? British citizenship wouldn't help expats in Canada achieve home fees, only residency would.

iaink

I realise its a simplistic answer, but thats why I posted the link to the details.

In reality a child born now to a british born mother is a brit, or in our case a british born father who is married to the mother, and the child is a brit. Her kids (if any) may well not be brits, but that was not the question.