mae

hello all, my first post here. my husband is a dual uk/us citizen, but has been living in the us since he was a teen. i am a us citizen. we would like to go to the uk when i am around 7 months pregnant to give birth there, and remain for a few months after the birth. our understanding is that our child would be a citizen even if born in the united states, but that our grandchildren would not unless born in the uk, and since we are able and our insurance covers it, we figured we'd gift some citizenship for the future. my questions are whether 1) my understanding is correct that the child will be a british citizen (not by descent) if born in the uk, even though my husband has not been living there; and 2) we'll have problems getting a visa for my stay (we will be able to prove that my insurance covers us to give birth there and that we can otherwise afford our stay in the uk. the plan is to stay about 5 months total). or any other issues i'm not thinking about. we already are in touch with a doctor and a hospital there.

roaringmouse

If your husband was born as a British citizen in the UK (or naturalised as a British citizen), then any child of his born in the UK will be British otherwise than by descent. That means that child will be able to pass on British citizenship to any children they have in the future outside the UK (under current laws). I suspect the specific visitor visa you may need is the one for private medical treatment. As you seem to be aware of, you would not be eligible for NHS treatment unless you pay for it - however for the visa you will only be able to get treatment privately, and not from the NHS anyway. Hopefully the hospital you have been in touch with is a private one with maternity facilities?

mae

Thanks for the information roaringmouse. My husband was born as a British citizen in the UK. I will look into the private medical treatment visa. The hospital is a completely private maternity hospital, not an NHS facility, and the consultant is a private consultant there.

BritInParis

roaringmouse is correct. Any child born in the UK to a British citizen will be a British otherwise than by descent, even if the British parent is a citizen by descent themselves. This means that any grandchildren will be British by descent if born outside the UK.

You will need to apply for the private medical treatment visa. This will allow you to stay in the UK for up to six months and give birth in a private maternity hospital.

Be aware that some airlines do not allow heavily pregnant women to fly or if they do they will often require a letter from your doctor saying you are fit to fly. It might be worth checking out the rules for the airline you intend to fly with before you book your flights.

roaringmouse

You are correct - I'm so used to specifying what is required for British nationality to pass on with a child born outside the UK, I mistakenly included it here where the intention is for the child to be born in the UK.

Below is the corrected version of what I wrote:

BritInParis

Don't worry, I wasn't correcting you - what you said was perfectly accurate - just adding some more information as it was implied rather than specified that the OP's husband was born in the UK

mae

Thanks, both!

holly_1948

If the pregnancy became a life threatening complication she would be entitled to free NHS medicine on an emergency basis. Hopefully never needed but a good trump card to hold in case something goes terribly wrong.
Also, the baby would be entitled to free NHS from the moment of birth onwards.

I'm not sure whether paid-for but NHS hospital provided childbirthing is possible.

pennylessinindia

You would need to check the free NHS care from the moment of birth, there is no immediately obvious reason this would be the case

formula

She doesn't have a visa that allows her free NHS. Emergency free healthcare on the NHS, is just treatment in the A&E and an ambulance (if needed) to the A&E. Any treatment not provided in A&E (all the expensive stuff) will have to be paid for i.e. xrays, stay on a ward, operation/s, aftercare treatment. Infectious diseases have free cover too, to stop an epidemic in the UK. Birth control pills are free too.

There was a programme on tv about a hospital ward where babies were born early (a right tear jerker) and one of the patients was a woman from Qatar(?) who had come to the UK for a visit with her husband and gone into early labour. Instead of her husband being able to give her support with their very ill baby, he was rushing around trying to find a way to pay their massive NHS bill as they (stupidly, as he admitted) travelled without health insurance. It was really sad to see what he was doing and how he was upset to leave his wife to try to sort this bill problem. It was much relief to them (and us viewers) when their government said they would pay their NHS bill and he could get back to his wife's side.

Just because a person is British, it doesn't mean they get free NHS. They have to reside in the UK for free NHS. My sister who lives in Canada, was on a trip back to the UK to see us when she was rushed into hospital as an emergency and then had to stay on a ward for a week. She used her private health insurance to pay her massive NHS bills as; although she is British; she no longer resides in the UK and therefore is not entitled to free NHS.

Some Brits who live in other countries, are getting caught out when they receive an NHS bill years later, as they thought they had got away with free treatment on the NHS when they visited the UK.

Not free on the NHS. The OP is a US citizen who does not have a visa to live in the UK, that also allows her to use the NHS for free.

Given the choice between an NHS hospital and a private one, I would use the private one. Gone are the days with the NHS hospitals of just a few babies being born in a day; lots of staff around; a 10 day (luxury) stay on a ward after the birth.

As pointed out, the private medical visa is the ones she needs.

Sally Redux

Everyone is different, but personally I'd want to be in a place I knew and was comfortable with to have the baby and start life together with him/her.

holly_1948

In the subject case, the baby would be a British citizen (because the father is British) with therefore a right of residence and had resided in Britain for 100% of his or her (brief) life. Never having resided anywhere else even for a fraction of a second. The newborn is therefore a resident (and subject to income tax if wealthy) until/unless leaving the country.
This refers to free NHS care for the baby (as contrasted with for the mother).

BritInParis

It's very unlikely the hospital are even going to be asking the questions in any case. They're medical professionals not immigration officials.

formula

Some hospitals are now waking up to the fact that they need to check immigtration status and some even turn away those who arrive at A&E with minor problems because they don't have insurance and are using the A&E to try to avoid paying for treatment. I had to go to a drop in centre while away from home and had to prove I was allowed free NHS.

Some still tend to treat first and just send the bill later. Look at that American who recently posted on UK-yankee that he received his "first" bill for his NHS treatment and that it was 100k and that he thought his NHS treatment would be free. He was on a visitor visa with his British wife. One American on that thread expressed surprise that he had been billed as "It's the national health service, it's free".



The babies parents reside in America. The baby can't live in the UK on it's own. There is no free NHS for Brits that don't live in the UK. They have a health policy anyway that gives them full cover, so it's not going to be a problem.

I can never understand why people who don't reside in a country they are visiting, play fast and loose with their own and their families, health. I wouldn't travel without it and both my British sisters' do the same when they bring their famlies back to visit the UK. It only cost pennies. If your child is in an accident, you need to be concentrating on that child, not trying to work out how you can pay the medical bill or stressing that you don't get that bill at a later date.

You can see why the government are going through all the old NHS numbers to weed out who is and isn't allowed free NHS. The changes under the new immigration bill, are going to be shaking things up a bit and leaving it open for more changes in the future.

WEBlue

Actually many hospital receptions do now ask for residence details. We left the UK in 2011, and I spent some time at our city hospital that year so I noticed it. It was a fairly new policy then, but admissions personnel were being instructed to check.