MarryingABritAussie

Hi,
Me and my partner are Australian citizens in our 30s, and because her mother migrated from the UK in the 70s, she applied for English citizenship and was granted the citizenship in her 20s. My partner was born in Australia and has never lived in the UK.

I am wondering when I marry her next year, will I be eligible to apply for English citizenship too? How does it work, would I have to go and live in England for several years to become eligible?

I just would like us both to have the option to move to and work in the UK for several years, if need be, without visa hassles. Is it easy, no problems for Australian citizens to go and work in England, utilising commonwealth citizenship or so? How easier it would be to go and work in the UK with a citizenship, compared to trying the same with Australian citizenship...In short, would it be worth going through citizenship hassles for me, if it is already easy enough with an Australian passport...No idea how UK treats Aussies, hopefully not as bad as how Australian bureaucracy treats the English.

Cheers.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated, any experience with this issue?

Bermudashorts

You might be better off asking a mod to move your post to the Moving back to the UK forum, there are people in there that know about UK visas / citizenship etc. In the Australian immigration section we tend to just know stuff about getting Australian visas and citizenship. Apart from JAJ, he knows everything.

tieve

You will need to apply through a similar process as a Brit coming to Australia to be with their partner I'm afraid

If this post gets moved to the Moving back to the Uk section, you'll find a lot of people who have had to go through this process and they'll hopefully be able to offer a lot more advice and support. For starters though, this is the partner link from the UK Border Agency website: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/pa...civilpartners/

Pollyana

Moved

Squirrel

No such thing as English Citizenship since England is a country but not a nation. We usually say UK or British citizenship.

If you wanted to go and live in the UK your wife would have to sponsor you for a UK Spouse visa. It's not that complicated to get, but you can't get UK citizenship yourself until you've lived in the UK for 3 years as the spouse of a citizen (it's 5 or even maybe 6 years now for those not married to a Brit).

pennylessinindia

being married to a Brit does not afford any right to citizenship
As said above you need to be resident for 3 years - this may change if you are watching the news there is consultation to change this .
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/ecg/settlement/ gives all the current information you need

JAJ

The same, in general. Start at http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk to find out about a spouse visa.

By the way, any children you have born in Australia (or anywhere outside Britain) won't be British citizens automatically, because your spouse is British "by descent". Although if you become a British citizen by naturalisation after living in Britain, you'll be British "otherwise than by descent".

Squirrel

Hiya,

Have you a link to anything about the consultation, just in case DH ever decides to take citizenship? (Though he's been resident over 10 years. Hopefully they won't change it to more than 10 years!)

JAJ

If he has been in the UK for 10 years and hasn't taken British citizenship then that is really not smart.

Unless he has a genuine reason not to, such as losing his existing nationality (and having a good reason to want to keep that nationality).

Why doesn't he simply apply for citizenship and then not need to worry about future law changes?

Squirrel

I agree but he says it will make him feel 'less American.' His mum would be so chuffed if he became British as she's a total Anglophile. However I won't nag him about it as he agreed to move to the UK for me which is all I feel I can really ask for.

Also it costs neary a thousand quid to become British now which we do not have. The idiot could have done it for £108 when he first became eligible with just a quick trip to the solicitor for the oath. Now he'd have to take the Life in the UK test and attend a ceremony.

JAJ

The fact he's already been outside the USA for many years sets him apart from most of his fellow citizens.

His choice, but it's 99% sure that it will only become more difficult and expensive to naturalise in future. Had he done so when first eligible it would have been a lot simpler, but that opportunity is gone.

Also he should understand that:

- right now, if he is the spouse of a British citizen, he does not need to declare any intention to remain living in the UK to become a British citizen. That could change; and

- things will also probably get more difficult for ILR holders, especially in terms of the ease and cost of replacing his ILR stamp. There have been stories of ILR holders in a mess when they lose their paperwork and then the Home Office can find no record of their file.

In the past many people chose not to become British citizens so as not to acquire a British domicile for tax purposes, although this was never so much a factor for spouses who did not need to make a future intentions declaration. Those advantages are rapidly disappearing under tax legislation.