JayDeee

I've been searching the net and am getting very different answers to this question.

My sister is in Australia with me and has been seeing a guy for a couple of months, she has 7 monhts left on her WHM visa and is then heading home to the UK. The guy she is seeing has said that he would like to go with her and was planning on getting a WHM visa for him to go to the UK, However he was born in the Seychelles and holds both Seychelles and Australian citizenship.

Some Parts of the home office web site indicate that all Seychelles citizens became british citizens in 1992, Am I understanding this correctly, if so does he need to do anything to enter the UK or is he as free to enter the UK as she is?


Any help greatly appreciated Thanks
Kala

Englishmum

The best thing he can do is to write to or phone up the British High Commission and ask them! They do have a website dedicated to Oz, so just do a google search for British High Commission + Australia. (They will be in Canberra for sure, but possibly have smaller offices in Sydney, Melbourne and possibly Brisbane and Perth).

Any info given by posters here may be incorrect - few if any of us are likely to be Seychelles passport holders!

One weird anomoly is that Ausse citizens are allowed to work in the UK for up to two years, whereas for UK citizens on a working holiday Down Under only get one year....unfair!!!!!

JAJ

1. I can definitively say that Seychelles citizens did *not* become British citizens in 1992, or at any time since independence (in 1976), for that matter.
If you point out to me which bits of the Home Office website are making you think this I can probably clarify further.

2. He needs a visa to go to the UK other than as a tourist. Seychelles and Australia are both eligible for the WHM visa, but I would use the Australian passport. It's likely to make his life much less complex in a variety of ways (travel in Europe is likely to be easier).

3. Later on he may be able to switch status onshore (eg to spouse status or work permit) after being admitted to the UK for more than 6 months. However he should avoid giving any indication of firm plans to do this on arrival as he may be refused entry (certainly an issue when arriving as a tourist, it may also be an issue for WHM visa holders). Take a look at this page for information on the UK WHM visa:
http://www.southern-cross-group.org/...daymakers.html

4. Does he have any easier route into the UK? For example, does he have a parent or grandparent born in the UK or Ireland?

Jeremy

JayDeee

Thanks Jeremy,

I pretty much know what he has to do to live and work in the UK as I have just been through it all with My Aussie Hubby, I just wasn't sure if his Seychelles citizenship might have given him automatic right. He hasn't lived in the Seychelles since his family moved to Australia when he was a child but thought it was worth seeing if his Seychelles citizenship might have made him either a sort of British or maybe French overseas territories citizen.

I cant find what info I found on the Internet the other day now, I may have been getting a few different situations mixed up, I will ask him about his grandparents though. and if they weren't born in the UK then a WHM visa it is.

Thanks a million Jeremy
Kala.