britishlondon30s

Hi!

I have been living in spain for 4 years now with my Spanish husband, we have recently had a baby here in spain.. is our baby eligible for uk and spanish passport? will it be harder to apply for british passport after brexxit?

what are the pros and cons of our children carrying dual passports?

can anyone help?

p.s are there any good english written websites out there that are can be used by british expats in spain to help understand the general laws in spain... now that i have a baby i want to be fully knowledgeable about my rights here.

BritInParis

Yes. No. None. Yes. Don't know.

snikpoh

As above but to clarify. Your baby is NOT entitled to a Spanish passport.

Lorna at Vicenza

Why not if the baby was born to a Spanish father?

dmu

+1
My OH is French and my daughters born in France are French, with French ID since birth and French Passports since they were old enough to travel outside of Europe. I had their births registered at the British Consulate and, when they asked for them (mainly to impress their respective class-mates), applied for British Passports. When these came up for renewal, neither wanted to renew them, as they're so expensive and, with French Passports, they didn't need them anyway....
Get your baby's Spanish IDs done now, register his/her birth at the British Consulate, and then apply for a British Passport. If you're worried about the consequences of Brexit, have you considered taking Spanish nationality (by dint of being married to a Spaniard)?

Boseley

We applied three years ago and Bosslady has only just been granted nationality.

snikpoh

Ooops - sorry, I didn't read that correctly.

scot47

Letting a child's British passport expire is not a good idea. I did that with my dual nationality daughters. When we wanted to renew the expired passports, the authorities put all sort of obstacles in our way. I never want to deal with HM Passport Office in Belfast again !

dmu

If this is in response to my comment, my daughters were adults when they decided not to renew their UK Passports. If they decide for some reason to renew their expired ones, they'll have to overcome any obstacles themselves! P.S. Why Belfast? I renewed mine via Durham....
As far as I see it, the only advantage of having two is that some countries' Visas are cheaper and/or simpler to obtain with one Passport than the other.
The OP could start proceedings to become Spanish now. At this rate, it should coincide more or less with the conclusion of the Brexit negotiations (if any....)!

Boseley

Passports are now processed in Belfast.

Obtaining Spanish nationality is now more complicated, a language test is needed, and a general knowledge test has to be passed, also there is a fee of 100€ per person to pay in addition to the costs for translation of documents.

BritInParis

Long answer: The child in question is both a Spanish and British citizen and thus entitled to both a Spanish and British passport. Brexit will not affect this. There's no disadvantage in holding both passports; British and Spanish nationality law permit dual nationality in the circumstances you describe.

britishlondon30s

yes i think this sums it up! he already has his DNI so he will get his spanish passport quite soon as father is spanish, just wondered if i had a time limit to get his british passport due to brexxit but seems it wont effect this

britishlondon30s

thanks! i have already registered the birth in spain and hold a spanish birth certificate for him..however inorder to register his birth in the uk, i have to get it translated...did you have experience in this this? although it states on the consulate that i can still order a british passport without registering the birth...so i may be able to skip this stage perhaps.

dmu

Hi, must admit that this was in France and 3 decades ago when I registered my daughters' births at the Consulate and I was living in the Paris suburbs at the time, so could go on the spot.
I've always heard it's useful to register children before UK Passports are applied for, since the Marriage/Birth Certificates have already been processed and might make the Passport procedure less slow, but it's not compulsory.
You must get used to having official documents translated! When we married in France, we received a multi-lingual marriage certificate from the Town Hall, which avoided translation fees.
Hope this is of some help, even though it's coming from France!

britishlondon30s

yes thank you very useful! we are still in the process of getting our marriage certificate translated too ! its something we didnt know before we moved out here .. will take on your advice!