pariah66

Hi

My wife, son and I are both UK and Australian citizens. We have been in Australia for 3 years and are UK citizens other than descent, both being born in the UK to British parents.

We have just had a baby girl one week ago and have flights booked to return to the UK on 28th August. We have already applied for her birth certificate one week ago and will apply for and fly with her Australian passport.

If we apply for a British passport timing will be very tight. I cannot see the application being completed until Monday 3rd Aug. Given the 3-4 week's processing time I am not sure we'll get the delivery in time.

We had planned to go back with the baby assuming they would let her in but it has occured to me this might not be the case.

Would be hugely grateful if anyone could advise would you do in this situation? Apply for a visa (if so which one)? Apply for a UK passport and delay the trip until this arrives (with significant cost implications while we pay for accommodation here)? Or just fly to the uk assuming they will let us in as the baby is in fact a British Citizen due to her parentage?

Note that I do not have my British birth certificate here, but mum does.

Thanks,
Pariah66

JAJ

Baby can't get a UK visa if a British citizen. And what kind of visa would you want to get anyway?

Read, etc.
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Britis...en_Born_Abroad

ALSO read, you will need to get a permanent proof of your children's Australian citizenship - passport is not ok for the longer term. (although you can apply for this at the Australian High Commission London)
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Eviden...an_Citizenship

Nicky & Dave

First time British passport applications take closer to 5-6 weeks at the moment. Travelling back to the UK with your daughter , provided you have her Australian birth certificate and Australian passport, would be fine. We did it (We have British passports, kids had Australian) - there were no issues. Provided you have her birth certificate, you can get an emergency Australian passport within 48hrs. We went through all of this only a short time ago ourselves.

Nicky

pariah66

Thanks both for your answers. Apologies for not reading the wiki (very useful information, wish my two hours' worth of google searching had found it!). Nicky, you have helped put my mind at rest.

I think given the delay with passports we will have to risk it. I will check with the airline to make sure they will allow us to fly.

I would welcome any other comments or advice on how to reduce the risk.

Thanks,
Pariah66

mbike

Just thought I would add our experience of proof of citizenship via form 119.

Gathered all the documentation and took the form to DIAC in Perth. Frustratingly, reception staff didn't "get" why we wanted or needed the proof of citizenship for our aussie-born daughter before we left. They just said her WA birth certificate was proof enough and it would be a waste of $60. It was only when we pointed out that both our countries of birth on her certificate were non-australian, that we were PR rather than citizens at the time and that we didn't want our daughter to have to prove our immigration status at the time of her birth (at some indeterminate future point when our old passports might not be to hand) that they understood the need. Thankfully she now has her own citizenship certificate to keep somewhere safe along with ours, should she ever need it.