Newbie!
 

Hi
Just joined today.
I moved to US from UK in 2013 to be with my daughter as she has ongoing health issues. She was born in UK but took US citizenship. She is now going through a divorce from US husband. There are 2 young children born in US. My husband and I (both British citizens) would like to return to UK in a couple of years and wondered if my daughter and grandchildren would be eligible to join us. Divorce is not finalised yet so custody is not known but she wants sole custody.
Any thoughts?
Thank you all.

Re: Newbie!
 

Hi, and welcome to BE.

Your daughter will need her ex's written permission to remove the children from the US and return to the UK with them, or a court order to that effect, so it will depend on if she can get that?

I'll move your thread to the Moving Back to the UK forum where you'll get some good info I'm sure.

Best of luck with the move back.

Re: Newbie!
 

Presuming your daughter was born in the UK and is a British citizen, her children are therefore British by descent (children born of British citizen, but overseas).
She should get their British passports.
She and them are then set to enter the UK - no further formalities needed.

(except, as said, permission from father to remove children from US)

Re: Newbie!
 

This! .... And having "sole custody" is not the same as having permission to remove the children from the US.

Even fathers with out any custody rights, and even without visitation rights can petition the court to stop their children being removed from the country. If anyone, including a mother with sole custody, removes a child from the country where they and their father are living, the mother could find that she has been deemed to have abducted them, per the Hague convention on Child Abduction, and the children could be returned*, in this case, to the US, at very least until the courts in the country where they were abducted from, have passed judegment.

* Under the circumstances of an alleged abduction from a country that is a signatory to the Hague convention on Child Abduction, such as the US, the only thing that the local courts, in this case in the UK, can do is determine if an alleged abduction has occured and then order that the children be returned from whence they came.

Re: Newbie!
 

My daughter has UK birth cert but took US citizenship in 2013. Will that complicate things? Yes, I understand about getting permission from father. Thanks for yr message.

Re: Newbie!
 

Having US citizenship is irrelevant when talking about her returning to the UK to live. .... Though she is on the hook for US tax returns for the rest of her life, unless she gives up her US citizenship. In due course, from the age of 18 her children will also be on the hook to complete annual US tax returns irrespective of whether they ever live or work in the US.

Re: Newbie!
 

No it won't - she is still at Brit - presume she still has her Brit passport.

As said get the children their Brit passports.

Re: Newbie!
 

No. she is a dual national, so, still British. Many of us on here have dual nationality of another country, but are very much British.

Re: Newbie!
 

Thank you for this good info. I think this website is great and being amongst others with the same kind of concerns is very helpful.