golgoli13

Hi everyone.
I've been researching about this issue for a few years now.
I was born in Italy in 1991 from a British father (born in 1952) that had been resident in Italy since 1964 more or less, but never gave up his citizenship. My mother is a Hungarian citizen who obtained Italian citizenship thus was Italian when I was born. They were not married at the time but my father's name is written on my birth certificate. They got married in 2007, when I was 16. I have been studying in the UK since 2018 with my Italian passport because I was told many years ago that since my parents were not legally married at the time of my birth I could never get British citizenship.
However, I stumbled upon the UKF form which clearly states:

UKF
Registration as a British citizen

Persons born before 1 July 2006 to British fathers and whose parents were not married
so technically I would be stil eligible. Is the UKF form the one I should complete? Does it make any difference to the process the fact that my parents subsequently got married?

Thank you!

BritInParis

Typically your parents’ subsequent marriage would legitimise your birth for the purposes of the British Nationality Act 1981 meaning it’s highly likely that you are already British. You need only apply for your first British passport.

golgoli13

That's great news! I also just found this, which probably corroborates what you have just written: Children born before 1 July 2006

For children born before 1 July 2006, you may need to consider whether a child was ‘legitimate’. Legitimacy depends on where the father was domiciled at the time of the child’s birth. If the laws of the country where the father is domiciled recognise the child as legitimate, then the child will be regarded as legitimate for the purposes of the British nationality law.

This means that the following can be regarded as ‘legitimate’:

• a child whose parents were married at the time of the birth
• a child whose parents were not married at the time of the birth, but married at
  a later date – if that meant that the child was treated as having been legitimated by the marriage, according to the laws of the place where the father was domiciled
• a child who was treated as legitimate by the laws of the country where the father was domiciled at the time of the birth, irrespective of whether the parents were married or not

So in the section 'Apply for citizenship if you have a British parent' on the government's website: You were born between 1983 and June 2006

You’re automatically a British citizen if you were born outside the UK and all of the following apply:

• you were born between 1 January 1983 and 30 June 2006
• your mother or father was a British citizen when you were born (they must have been married if your father had British citizenship but your mother did not)
• your British parent could pass on their citizenship to you
  
  Is that second requirement in brackets related to​​​​​ the legitimacy of the child born?

BritInParis

If you want to read more about it then this is pretty comprehensive: https://assets.publishing.service.go...d-domicile.pdf

If your father has been resident in Italy since the age of 12 then it’s possible that he could be considered domiciled there. However given that both the UK and Italy consider the subsequent marriage of their parents sufficient to legitimise a child’s birth then it’s somewhat of a moot point.

golgoli13

Thanks for the link! So we could say that their marriage has a retroactive effect?
Because an adviser from citizens advice just sent me an email saying:

This page has information covering your situation. You will see that, in order for you automatically to be a British citizen (i.e. without making an application) based on your father's British citizenship, your parents would have had to be married at the time you were born. As this is not the case, you would need to apply to become a British citizen.

BritInParis

That’s correct; the CAB is only half-right.

scot47

Not the first time I have come across poor advice from the amateurs who run The CAB !
Well done to Brit in Paris for this sterling work !