CaptainNeutron

Hi there,

I am a British citizen and my girlfriend is German and we live in Germany. We have a son (15) who at the moment has German citizenship and a German passport but he would like to change his citizenship to British. Does anyone know if this is possible and how much/how long it takes?

Any information gratefully appreciated!

Novocastrian

I'm no expert, but I'm almost certain that your son is a British citizen by descent. The only problem might arise if you (despite being a British citizen) weren't born in the UK.

I can't comment as to the current German attitude towards dual nationality, but I think that's OK these days too.

Ask at the nearest British Consulate; that's what they're there for.

ninaDGBCA

I am German, my husband is British. Both kids were born in the UK and got UK passports but have by birth the dual citizenship. If you weren't born in the UK and your Son was born in Germany he might get a passport as a British subject. But not sure about that. We currently live in Canada and baby number 3 will have all 3 citizenships by birth. Go to an embassy or consulat you might have to register his birth in the UK. Bring his birth cert. and the birth cert. of you and your wife and the passport and they'll tell you what to do. But he defo has the right to have both nationalities.

So he doesn't have to change his citizenship. Which I wouldn't recommend anyways as, if he ever wanted to study in Germany, he'd pay foreign student fees if he only had Brit. nationality. So definitely keep both.

CaptainNeutron

Thanks to both of you!
I'll be getting in touch with the consulate in Düsseldorf this week. I'll post about what I find out.

JAJ

Firstly, post #2 doesn't take into account the fact you appear to be unmarried (which makes a big difference) and post #3 is wrong when it talks about a "British subject" passport. British subject status is held only be a small group of people in specific circumstances and is not a "consolation prize" for those who don't meet the eligibility requirements for British citizenship.

As it appears you are not married to your girlfriend, and your son was born before 1 July 2006, then he is NOT a British citizen.

However, he can be registered as a British citizen with the Home Office provided that application is made before age 18.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br...britishfather/

You need to have been born in the UK yourself, or meet certain other requirements, in order to pass on your British citizenship.

There is no flexibility on the age 18 requirement, if you leave it too late.

Becoming a British citizen should not affect his German citizenship, as Germans can acquire another EU/Swiss state citizenship without needing to go through formalities to keep German citizenship:
http://www.london.diplo.de/Vertretun...ty__seite.html

Novocastrian

There you go then. As usual, well meaning but wrong.

But I can't imagine why going through some utterly pointless ritual (or not) should have a bearing on the citizenship of the offspring.

But if you say so. As I said, no expert here.

JAJ

Because it's the law.

However, as already explained, if they don't want to get married there is another way to acquire citizenship before age 18.
(in fairness, I did edit out the remarks originally made as they were not appropriate. Apologies.).

bewillow

If he was born as a British citizen (which JAJ says he was likely not), or if he Registers as British now, that would not replace his German citizenship. He would have both German and British citizenship. He could, going forward, ignore the fact he was German, but he could always renew his passport if he wanted to.

CaptainNeutron

Thanks again for all your replies...I am still working on this but I hope it will soon be resolved and I can let you know what happened for future reference!

JAJ

The unambiguous way to resolve the problem is to follow the advice in post #5 - the child should make an application for registration as a British citizen before age 18.