melaniere

okay I was born in England both my parents were born in England. I moved to the US got married and have my first child in 1999 I became a US citizen in 2008 and have my last child in 2014 can the children I had after I became a citizen of the u.s still get citizenship in the UK? How do I go about getting all of my children citizenship for the UK well I am still living in the u.s. If anybody has any information of how much this would cost or where I could find forms, and if this has to be done before they reach a certain age.I would greatly appreciate it thanks in advance

Pulaski

Whether you're a US citizen or not, and when you became one is wholly irrelevant for the purpose of establishing whether your children can get British citizenship.

As you are a British citizen born in the UK you are a "British citizen other than be descent", and can therefore pass British citizenship to your children, who each become a "British citizen by descent", and who cannot generally speaking pass on citizenship to their children unless they spend a certain number (that I can't remember) of years living in the UK.

I think it is generally considered the easiest first step to register their births with the British embassy, which has two benefits: (i) it makes getting a passport easier, and (ii) it makes getting a replacement passport in future easier (because eligibility for British citizenship doesn't have to be reestablished) if they say lose it, or allow it to lapse.

I need to finally get around to doing this for little Miss P, so I will be watching for other replies to your questions myself.

melaniere

thanks for your response I do have a quick question about something you said how would I go about registering their births or getting a brittish birth certificate?

RICH

The children won't get British birth certificates if they were born in US. They have US ones, correct?

Register their births with the UK.
This looks like the place:

https://www.gov.uk/register-a-birth/...s/same_country

melaniere

yes they do have us birth certificates. So in order to get their citizenship would I have to register their birth and get a passport or one or the other or neither one of those Gives them citizenship?

RICH

They already have UK citizenship, by birth to you. Registering the birth is a means of documenting it with UK, and will aid in getting passports, which is the most common means of documenting citizenship, but is not a requirement of citizenship.

melaniere

so do I need to register the birth and get a passport or just get a passport? Because it's a lot cheaper just to get a passport. registering the birth is twice as much.

RICH

You don't NEED to do either. But if they travel abroad, the kids will NEED US passports to re-enter US without problems.

Pulaski

They can get a British passport at any time between now and their deaths, but the logistics of proving that they are British citizens will only become harder.

To expand on what I posted earlier, you can go "straight for the passport", but if they lose the passport or allow it to lapse, I hear that they would have to start over, proving again that they are British citizens. Whereas you can register the births now, and that is a once-and-for-all proofthat they are British citizens, and getting a British passport at any time after that is quite straight forward.

Given that, as Rich said, they are required by US law to travel to and from the US on US passports, and that it is perfectly permissible for British citizens to travel to and from the UK on a US passport, I suggest that the best compromise, though not the cheapest, would be to register their births with the British embassy now, and then get the passports later, or leave it up to them as adults to get British passports if they want to.

melaniere

Good advice Pulaski I think I will do that thanks

Pulaski

You're welcome.

MarylandNed

This is no longer handled by the British Embassy. Foreign birth registration is now handled by a central processing unit in the UK (Milton Keynes).

Start here: https://www.gov.uk/register-a-birth

MarylandNed

They can apply for a consular birth cert at the time of consular birth registration. It's also possible to register without applying for the consular birth cert. Also they can get a much cheaper birth cert from the General Register Office (GRO) in the UK once the GRO records have been been updated with the consular birth registration. This used to happen sometime in the calendar year following the calendar year of consular birth registration but I'm not sure if this will change (e.g. maybe happen faster?) now that all consular birth registrations are handled in Milton Keynes.

As previously stated, consular birth registration is an OPTIONAL step and is not required for passport applications. However, I agree with the point that it can only make proving British citizenship later in life that much easier - especially for anyone who is not good at safekeeping documentation. Once the registration eventually finds its way to the GRO, it's a simple matter to obtain a relatively cheap GRO birth cert.

guca

Hi There,
I have a similar question, my wife and I become British citizen 4 years ago, ours kids born in the UK. now I have a job offer in the states and will probably move there next year. if we have another kid in the states will he/she be British because our citizenship?

thanks

Gus

rpjs

Yes as you are both British citizens "other than by descent" which means your children will automatically be British citizens. However, a child born to you outside the UK will be British "by descent" which means they wouldn't automatically pass on British citizenship to any children they have.