PoppetUK

hi all.

Currently we r a family of 4 all born in the UK but now pr in oz. Our third child will be born in oz next year. Is there anything we can do so that this child can pass on UK citizenship to it's children?

Thanks in advance.

Poppet

Pollyana

Its really a JAJ type question, but he's away for Christmas. I'll move you to the UK forum though, someone there may well know.

NickyC

I'd have thought that one sure way of guaranteeing this is to have your third child is born in the UK.

Failing that, if your Australian-born child (and therefore only British by descent) could arrange to have all their own children born in the UK, then those grandchildren would be British.

If that doesn't happen and those grandchildren were born in Australia, they would still qualify for an ancestry visa (under current rules) to the UK and will be allowed to live and work there for long enough to qualify for British citizenship in their own right.

If that doesn't happen, then the link to the UK is broken. I guess the British government has to draw the line somewhere - two consecutive generations born overseas with no recent links to the UK is probably quite reasonable .

moneypenny20

Apart from anything else, who's to say what the rules and regulations will be when your baby has babies? Sometimes the rules change and it works retrospectively but I'm not sure there's any way to guarantee UK citizenship without having your child born in the UK and then that child doing the same thing - providing that child wants children of course

PoppetUK

Would I be correct in saying that if we moved back to the UK for a period of 5 years the child could apply for citizenship by naturalisation which would then mean they have the same rights as our other kids. Not sure if I am reading information on the web correctly.

Thanks for the responses.

I do agree that the government has to draw a line somewhere we just wanted our kids to have equal opportunities. Visas wouldn't allow work in all EU countries where UK citizenship would.

NickyC

Can't help with that, I'm afraid - definitely one for JAJ.

From reading the citizenship requirements it looks like any Aussie-born grandchild could be naturalised (if they fit the requirements, of course) - but it doesn't look like it for the Aussie-born, British-by-descent child. It does say "A British citizen by descent cannot become a British citizen otherwise than by descent."

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br...utcitizenship/