Peter Newton

Just wondering if anyone has looked into obtaining British citizenship for their American spouse? I'd really like for Wendy to become a UK citizen, but apart from actually going to live there for a few years does anyone know of another way of doing it from outside the UK?

I suspect not but thought I'd ask anyway....

MrsLondon

Yes I am afraid it's the same as the US. Foreign spouse has to live in the UK for 3 years as a perm resident before they can file for citizenship. No test or ceremony at present but they are considering introducing it.

Peter Newton

I thought as much...

Jaj

If you, or one of your parents, was born in Ireland or Northern
Ireland, your wife could apply for Irish citizenship without any
residence requirement. Provided application is made on or before 29
Nov 2005, and you have made the necessary declarations *after* the
third anniversary of your marriage.
http://www.irelandemb.org/citizen.html

Irish citizenship is not British citizenship, but Irish citizens can
live freely in the UK. So it's a reasonable substitute. An Irish
citizen living in the UK can still apply for British citizenship after
3 years in the UK if married to a British citizen, 5 years otherwise.

Jeremy



    >On Tue, 18 Nov 2003 16:33:04 +0000, Peter Newton <member@british_expats.com> wrote:
    >I thought as much...
    >Originally posted by MrsLondon
    >Yes I am afraid it's the same as the US. Foreign spouse has to live in
    >the UK for 3 years as a perm resident before they can file for
    >citizenship. No test or ceremony at present but they are considering
    >introducing it.
    >--
    >Posted via http://britishexpats.com

This is not intended to be legal advice in any jurisdiction

Peter Newton

Wow! That's great... unfortunately neither of us have any connections to the Emerald Isle. But I'm sure a few others on the NG could benefit from this...

cindyabs

I was thinking also IF you had a parent orgrandparent that was born in Canada you could qualify also?

Peter Newton

Nope.

One thing I thought of... Wendy has an italian grandparent. I'll look into that...

Peter Newton

Just wanted to post one last time on this subject....

It turns out Wendy can claim Italian Citizenship since her grandfather was born in Italy, and her father was born in the US, but before her grandfather became a naturalized US citizen (lost yet?)

So we're going to gather all the paperwork and head down the Italian consulate in NYC to get it all processed. And there's no need to live in Italy. Pretty cool eh?

It also turns out that after 3 years of Wendy claiming it, I can claim Italian citizenship as well, so in theory I could end up with 3 passports (although probably won't bother...)

Cheers
Peter

MrsLondon

I've heard of people with 3 citizenships, but I wonder what the record is for the most citizenships anyone has.

KatherineH

I'm very curious about the connection between a grandparent born in Canada and UK citizenship, if anyone has more info, please PM.

My grandma was born in Canada to British parents. I'm sure there's a way built in there somehow, but she never went to the UK and passed away last spring. But dad has her Canadian BC in his files.

Anyone?

MrsLondon

A citizen of a commonwealth country can claim UK citizenship through their grandfather. The grandfather would have to be British. I'm not sure about grandmothers. As far as I know one cannot claim UK citizenship by having Canadian grandparents.

Peter Newton

I'm sure www.ind.gov.uk would have the answer....

Jaj

A Canadian born grandparent gives no right to British citizenship.
Even Canadian citizenship on that basis would not be automatic.

Even a *British* born grandparent in itself gives no right to claim
British citizenship, although if you are the citizen of a Commonwealth
country with a UK born grandparent you can migrate to the UK under an
ancestry visa and after a few years convert to permanent residence and
naturalise as a British citizen.

British born great-grandparents are too far removed to have any
immigration benefit under UK law.

Ask about UK matters on misc.immigration.misc

Jeremy


    >On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 16:09:35 +0000, Peter Newton <member13275@british_expats.com> wrote:
    >I'm sure www.ind.gov.uk would have the answer....
    >Originally posted by KatherineH
    >> I'm very curious about the connection between a grandparent born in
    >> Canada and UK citizenship, if anyone has more info, please PM.
    >> My grandma was born in Canada to British parents. I'm sure there's a
    >> way built in there somehow, but she never went to the UK and passed
    >> away last spring. But dad has her Canadian BC in his files.
    >Anyone?
    >--
    >Posted via http://britishexpats.com

This is not intended to be legal advice in any jurisdiction

Tam

    > I'm very curious about the connection between a grandparent born in
    > Canada and UK citizenship, if anyone has more info, please PM.
    >
    > My grandma was born in Canada to British parents. I'm sure there's a
    > way built in there somehow, but she never went to the UK and passed
    > away last spring. But dad has her Canadian BC in his files.
    >

At the time your grandmother was born, "in the ligeance of the King", birth
in the Empire and its dominions afforded what we would call today British
nationality. (But Britain, and to some extent the USA too, has always
focused on common-law "allegiance" more than on civil-law "nationality".
Citizenship flows from allegiance, as in the "Pledge of allegiance".) And
about that time independent Commonwealth states created their own
nationalities, in parallel with British citizenship.

It was different for naturalised persons: naturalisation in a colony did not
give rise to citizenship of Britain.

In 1911 Churchil proposed a Commonwealth citizenship (45 years later de
Gaulle tried to create a Citizenship of the French Community, which more or
less tells you what was behind this), but the South African Government
didn't go along (for racist reasons) and the proposal was dropped.

But by 1948 Britain conceded that it needed a distinct nationality act.

Still, even today, British nationality does not, in itself, control the
right of abode in Britain: that is the function of the Immigration Act.

Britain now has one of the more restrictive sets of rules for granting
nationality: neither birth to a British parent abroad, nor birth on British
soil, will itself assure that the child will have British nationality, or
that it will not be stateless. British diplomats and military are, for that
reason, given the opportunity for paid travel back to Britain to have their
children. (At the behest of the European Commission, there is, in fact, a
proviso in the law governing birth abroad to Crown servants and certain
British employees of the EU, etc.)

NC Penguin

Getting Italian citizenship like that is pretty cool but how does that help your wife obtaining British citizenship which was your original reason for posting?



NC Penguin