crazy_canukgirl

Hi I have a question I can't seem to find anywhere, My husband is British born in Scotland. He has lived in Canada (for the last 13 years as a permanent resident) where we married and had a son who is 10 years old. I have duel Irish citizenship by descent (already have my FBR cert and Irish passport) I know our son automatically qualifies for his UK passport from his father however we don't have his passport yet. We are moving back to Scotland in a few months can we bring our son into the UK on his Canadian passport and apply for it there or will this cause a huge hassle if we try to enter with him on his Canadian while we use our other passports?? sorry I know this sounds so complicated the reason I'm asking is that we have cut it kind of close to travel time and we have to send away his canadian passport with the uk application and we are afraid he won't have either by the time we leave thanks for any advice !!

BEVS

Hi there and welcome to BE

I can't help as I'm right down in New Zealand but I am sure someone will be along soon that can guide you .

crazy_canukgirl

Hi Thanks!! I hope to get some clarity, I'm seriously stressing out over this move and I should have had this all sorted already however I suck at moving overseas I guess lol

Elvira

(a) you do not include the original Canadian passport with the application - photocopy will do.

(b) it should take no more than a couple of weeks - unlikely to be more than a month - to get your son's British passport.

crazy_canukgirl

Wow thank you...I wish this all wasn't so overwhelming that I could actually read the guide I have for the passport app. Just looked at it more closely and it does have a *saying (in super small print) that I can provide a full color copy of the canadian passport if I cannot send the original I just have to provide an explanation. It said 6-8 weeks for an overseas first time passport and we are travelling in 9 1/2 weeks so I was pretty nervous. At any rate I really appreciate the info!! thanks for the quick reply

Elvira

This is a very long thread about people's experiences of getting British passports from the US - might be worth skimming through (especially the more recent posts):

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=786998

Good luck!

chaoclive

I think you have plenty of time and your circumstances are much better than a lot of other people on this forum. The only thing is that you're waiting for his passport right? He already has the citizenship so you're nearly there.

Do you have a consular birth cert for your son? If not, you might look at getting one. I'm personally not sure how it works.

Also, would he be eligible for Irish citizenship? See here: http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en...r_descent.html. I don't know which situation is closer to yours.

See the link that someone else left to another thread. There's lot of info there.

Relax. Your kid has at least got 2 citizenships. Everything will be fine!

Good luck
C

BritInParis

As mentioned you have enough time to get your son his British passport and there's no need to send off his Canadian passport with the application.

I would recommend registering his birth with the Irish Embassy in Ottawa before you leave. This would give him Irish citizenship, access to an Irish passport and the ability to pass it on to the next generation when the time comes.

http://www.embassyofireland.ca/home/index.aspx?id=89651

NB: FBR would only be available to your son if one of your parents was Irish-born or you yourself were registered before your son was born.

crazy_canukgirl

Hi Guys,

He can't get Irish citizenship unless I had registered with the FBR before he was born (which I didn't) I have citizenship by descent from my Grandmother I am just going to send the UK app with a copy of his Canadian passport and cross my fingers that it won't take long

crazy_canukgirl

Well here's an update, 7 weeks and no sign of our son's British Passport. So we are going to have to bring him in on his Canadian and cross our fingers that we can change the forwarding address to receive his passport to an address in Scotland. I am not sure if this is possible because we applied from Canada ...at any rate fingers crossed we figure it out and get his passport safely !! Hopefully there is no issue brining him in the UK this way

pondhopper2014

Any updates? We are looking at similar. Hunny is Brit by birth, came to Canada as a child. I'm Brit by descent. Our children (like me) are Brit by Descent through their dad, my sweet Hunny. So, we're applying now for my passport first (cuz if Mama can't go, ain't nobody goin'!) and then my Hunny's, then our childrens' ones.

When is moving day (or roughly...)? Where are you in Canada? We're in Eastern Ontario and hope to move to mid-north England. You can read my blog if you like... it might be encouraging, though prolly not as helpful as I'd like it to be. The link is below.

What does your son think of this move? Is he excited?
Blessings!!

englishguygoinghome

If you can, try to get hold of duplicates of the documents you needed for his passport application (your husband's birth certificate and your son's birth certificate) and carry them with you in case immigration cause problems. Then you can use those to prove his citizenship and get in that way. Otherwise worst case - they will stamp him as a visitor - but that doesn't matter. Or even worse will keep holding you until someone senior enough looks at your paperwork and lets him in.

Gozit

If they stamp him a visitor and he stays in the UK longer than 6 months, he will be then branded as an overstayer, correct? Correct me if i'm wrong but in that case it would matter.

At any rate, if need be they can exit the UK/Ireland (Common Travel Area) with sons Cdn passport, then re-enter on the UK one.

sons passport comes!

englishguygoinghome

He wouldn't be an overstayer as he's a British Citizen with right of abode, a passport is not required to prove his elligibility to be in the UK (although it is usually needed to prove elligibilty to enter). If we had exit checks then one would expect that his Canadian passport would be flagged as belonging to an overstayer but seeing as we have no such checks and no way of knowing whether anyone is still in the country or not I'd guess there would be very little problem, particularly if he gets a UK passport before the 6 months are up. The issue is purely one of getting in to the country.

Gozit

Ah. I suspect also that there would be little suspicion by the border agent since the mum is entering on an Irish pport and the dad is entering on a UK pport.