Bob

yup...getting married before a divorce is finalised etc...

ex-expat

I'm a US citizen married to a UK citizen with two children who are dual UK/US citizens.

Having previously lived in London with my first son I'd highly recommend getting both a UK and a US passport, especially if you travel frequently or plan or still have a residence in the UK.

I tried getting my son back into the UK on just his US passport and got a lot of hassle from the immigration people, especially as I was travelling with my British spouse. They let me go once but it was so much trouble, I always used his UK passport in the UK.

Their rules are the same as the US - if the child is a UK citizen he has to use his UK passport to enter the UK.

It's annoying - but dual does imply two sets of everything.

Good luck and congratulations.

Bob

They don't...it just makes it easier because you'll be treated as a foreigner otherwise and will have to fill in landing card etc and only be allowed to stay for holiday or whatever visa is in the US passport.

CPW

[QUOTE=ex-expat]
Their rules are the same as the US - if the child is a UK citizen he has to use his UK passport to enter the UK.
QUOTE]

That's not really true, but see all the caveats noted in the posts above. It's certainly the easiest and most straightforward option, however, whatever the circumstances.

ex-expat

[QUOTE=CPW]

ex-expat

Thanks for the clarification.

My understanding was based on what the UK customs official told me when I entered the UK, i.e. he told me (rather adamantly) that my son had to use his UK passport to enter the UK.

Perhaps different rules applied because we were resident in the UK and therefore we weren't entering the UK for a holiday/short visit?

Englishmum

Absolutely!

Surely you didn't expect to take up residence in the UK with your child who has entered the country without a British passport? Or was your child just going to be a tourist in the UK and return to the States....? (I assume you didn't get a visa on the US passport for your child to be legally resident in the UK either?).

ex-expat

Hi there. I was already a permanent resident in the UK for 15 years at the time and my son was born in the UK and held a UK passport as well as a US passport. We were returning back from the US where he travelled often and now lives. On that occasion I'd just forgot to bring the UK passport along with me as well and thought he'd be OK to re-enter on his valid US passport. I was told that as a UK citizen he should always enter the UK on his UK passport, which was why I was responded to another mother's question regarding whether UK immigration requires a dual UK/US child to enter on a UK passport. From my experience the child did, but others in the chatroom have already shown that this isn't always the case. It's clearly a complicated issue, and I was only passing on advice based on my own personal experience.