TheD4

HI everyone.
I hope my thread will not be too difficult to understand. It is all a bit tricky to me, so that is why I am asking here before I get to carried away with plans for something that may not be possible!


Background: I am a NZ citizen but through my father have UK citizenship too and moved from NZ to UK as a family when I was a kid. I lived there for 5.5 yrs until I returned to NZ at 18 yrs of age.
After a bit of travel and a short stint (1-2 yrs) back in UK I went back to NZ and met and married my NZ citizen husband (he has no descent he can use to get UK citizenship). We applied for a spouse visa and went to UK with intentions of staying long term, but we returned after 6 mths to NZ (wish I'd known it was going to work out like that and saved a lot of $$ and stress trying to get the spousal visa!!).
Back in NZ we had a child. At the time from what I read, because I was not born in UK my child would not be able to get UK citizenship.
A few years later we moved to Australia and had 2 more children (who are NZ citizens by descent and will only become Aussie citizens if they still live in australia when they turn 10, which is still a number of years away).

I miss the UK but figured I was not able to take my kiwi family there.

But I still miss it and have been wondering if we maybe can? I looked online and it seems the rules have changed a bit since I last looked but its still hard for me to know just what the deal is. Me and my husband are in our 30's.

I'd be grateful for any advise but also wondering if the fact I have UK citizenship by decent but have lived in UK for over 5 years, perhaps there is some way I can change my citizenship or something that will enable my kids to become little Brits???

Any advise though is great - I need to know if this is worth persuing or something we probably cannot do.
Help!

englishguygoinghome

Kids can get a passport. See here but note the last paragraph as it will affect your grandchildren:http://ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/britis...en/bornabroad/

For your husband see the BE wiki link in my signature

TheD4

Thank you for that quick reply. Initially I was very excited about my children quite possibly getting UK citizenship. But then I read your link about spouses...
I'm pretty upset.
I have been a stay at home mum and at my age thinking I will probably need to study to get back into work. I cannot see how I could secure myself with a job before I even got there when I have no obvious recent work history.
My husband can work anywhere as he is a programmer and has the possibility to earn a good income working from home (technically self employed but for an overseas company). I don't see how trying to get a job with a UK company is going to work for him at this stage of his career. He's worked so hard the past few years to get to being able to be 'self employed'. He freelances too - has his own company. Its the sort of work he does.

I can't believe it.

My family are all in the UK.

Those are such tough rules.

TheD4

Just adding another question, because those new regulations seem crazy.

If I obtained UK passports for my children and I took them to the UK by myself without my husband, would they let us in with no questions or evidence needed? Or would I still have to provide some 'thing' to be allowed back into my own country with my kids?
Basically, are these restrictions only because of trying to bring into UK a 'foreigner'?

TheD4

Ok, so I have been doing some further reading about family visas.

As the Brit, I am solely the one who is income tested unless we can show we have savings of over 64,000 pounds. But what is the requirements for aquiring these savings? I read something about needing to apply from a country you have residence in? As NZ citizens in Australia (post Feb 2001) we are living here on Special Category Visas and not actual permanent residents (meaning we can come and stay in Australia indefinitely but its a non secure visa so technically we could be chucked out at any time. Its not easy/probable to get permanent residency here).

I'm probably going to have a few more questions as I digest this info about the family visa for UK and try work out if we can possibly try anything to work towards applying at some stage...

englishguygoinghome

You and the kids (if they have passports) can go back at anytime with no questions or problems. You may (read "should but not everyone gets asked the questions") have some difficulty applying for benefits and possibly even for the NHS initially until you have been resident for a while.

Residence doesn't need to be permanent. You just need to be living in (ie not visiting) the country legally

Yes the rules are harsh, they have been challenged in court with a bit of success but it wasn't an outright victory and the verdict was given less than 2 weeks ago. Take a look at www.britcits.com for stories of others in similar situations and a news feed on what is happening to work for change, which MPs and Lords are supportive etc.

Look up Surinder Singh (good place to start is this forum and the wiki). Maybe think about shipping your kids off the family for a few months over the summer as part of the move and living somewhere else with your husband to get in that way.

TheD4

But what if I went to UK with kids and got work, would my husband be able to follow? I've started reading about the Surinder Singh way but really not sure we would be able to manage it.

Thanks for you help so far. Still in a bit of shock at the reality of the situation.

englishguygoinghome

Yes. But expect to be separated for at least a year. 6 months in the job earning at least £18600 before you can apply and then a further 6 months (could be 2, could be 9) for the processing.