British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Hi,

Hubby and I are both Brits. We want to organise a british birth certificate for our baby born here in the US. We got married in Bermuda and it says that we have to send our original marriage certificate along with authentication from the relevant embassy. Am I right in thinking that as Bermuda is an overseas territory we won't need that?

Thanks

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

You will need it.

And your child wasn't born in Britain so wont get a British birth cert. They'll get a US one.

Congratulations on the baby.

BW

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

I'm guessing the OP is thinking of registering the birth with the consulate overseas rather than a actual birth certificate.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

yes, that's exactly it Bob.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

We did this but it was when we returned to th UK. We just went to the local registars office with the US birth certificate, our birth certificates and our marriage certificate. I would think that those are the certificates you will need for the consulate.
Congrats on the baby.:thumbup:

Just a note:
Your baby will not be able to pass on his/ her UK citizenship to their kids if they marry a USC and live in the USA.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

By default, but they can if they have spent x number of years living in the UK before a certain age, I can't remember which, but something along the lines of 4 years before hitting 18.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

No, I believe that the child of a citizen by descent is entitled to be registered as a British citizen, if the parent (citizen by descent) has lived in the UK AT ANY TIME before the child's birth for a period of 3 years.


Ref:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br...en/bornabroad/

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

This forum is great for learning new stuff!
Quote from the link:
"A child registered as a British citizen under this section will become a British citizen by descent. They will be unable to pass British citizenship on automatically to any of their children born outside the United Kingdom."

So it was the automatically part that I was talking about!

So as Bilder said, if your child lives in the UK for 3 years was never absent for more than 270 days they can become a british citizen.

I will have to go through this for my daughter as we are leving for the states in January. We have been in the UK for 10 years.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Just checked the UK border control website. Form MN1 for getting my daughter british citizenship costs £540:eek:!!!!

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

I didn't say that. You may want to reread that.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

The quote I used was from the reference link to the border agency that you had a link to. I copied it from the border agency website.

As was the statement about 3 years and the 270 days. After re-reading I should have said is "if your child lives in the UK for 3 years and was never absent for more than 270 days they can pass on their british citizenship to their children".

I was confirming what you had said about the three year period and also explaining why I had the misconception around a citizen by decent not being able to pass on their citizenship.

Basically, I was admitting that I was wrong and you were correct ;)!!

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Ok, I see. Good stuff.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

It's my understanding that you do not need to do this, that you can just apply for a British passport for your child without the hassle and cost of registering the birth. As long as you or your husband is a British born citizen.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

My daughter already has a british passport.
I was wanting to get her to a position where she could pass on her citizenship to her children as she is only british by descent (Born in USA).

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

You can't.

If she has children, and they're born in the UK, they will automatically be British citizens otherwise than by descent. However, if they too are born outside the UK, they will not have British citizenship at birth, but she may be able to register them as citizens under certain circumstances.

http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Britis...hip_by_Descent

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

If you're asking whether you'll need your marriage certificate authenticated then I can only imagine that the answer's no. The relevant embassy would in this case be the British Embassy in the USA, since as you say Bermuda is an overseas territory.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

All I was pointing out is it is a waste of money to register the birth as it is not needed to get a British Passport for a child born to a British Born UK citizens.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Though registering the birth has other benefits...

Mostly for the future, when the parent might be dead and getting copies of the documents to provide proof of citizenship becomes difficult or impossible...problems can come from a US birth cert issued after 3 months after birth, not being able to get copies of certain documents or most likely in event that UK passport is lost/stolen, not having to go through the whole process of proving citizenship from scratch.

Registering the birth means you can just get a birth cert from the births/deaths register in the UK, for minimal cost. You don't need a copy of the certificate when you register the birth if you want to save some money, especially if you're going to be in the UK at some point where you can pick up a copy for a fiver or whatever it is these days, but certainly a lot less than getting one from the US.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Thinking of this from a contrary point of view, have you considered the implications of your baby being a US citizen? The biggest negative is the he/she will be taxed by the US no matter where they live and will have to file US taxes and comply with US foreign account regulations. If your baby ever lives in the UK as an adult this will be a pain in the neck if they have a pension or own UK investments. Of course being dual US/UK does allow them to live and work in US and EU.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

File US taxes, not necessarily pay US taxes.

The paperwork issues are certainly not insurmountable, just different, particularly if "you" have never previously been exposed to annual tax paperwork. It's all about comfort zones, needing to learn about something different and such like.

(I grew up in Australia where I completed and filed my first tax return at age 16. This is the norm as personal tax returns/filing/submissions are compulsory. )

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Yes that's a good distinction.

However, it's not just a paperwork issue. There are US regulations that limit the investment options of US citizens abroad eg. investments in UK unit trusts and with FATCA there may be difficulties and extra charges to open UK bank accounts and investment accounts

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

taxpayers with foreign accounts and assets with an aggregate value exceeding $50,000 to report them on an informational return. It is unclear whether the $50,000 threshold applies if the balance of foreign accounts and assets exceeds $50,000 at the end of the tax year or at any time during the tax year, as in the case of the FBAR $10,000 requirement. FATCA’s provisions of IRC § 6038D apply to assets held during tax years beginning after March 18, 2010.

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/...0/Aug/20102736

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Sorry to bump an old thread... getting myself very confused! We are trying to work out what to do with my son regarding his UK citizenship (born in the US but husband and I are both British). We will obviously apply for his US passport, but is there any time critical urgency to doing the UK passport or birth registration? What would happen if we didn't do anything at all to get him a UK passport or register his birth... and he decided he wanted to live in the UK when he was older?

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

He would have to prove his claim to UK citizenship - which might be difficult without any documented proof. There is no "time critical urgency"... but the sooner, the better. Securing documented proof of your son's status a UKC is probably a good birthday present for him.

Ian

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Thanks Ian. I think he would prefer teething rings or an annoying singing toy to be honest but I suppose we'd better get onto it :D

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Depends how the parents got UK citizenship, if they had gotten it through decent, then there is some time critical issues, but if they got it otherwise than by decent, there isn't anything time critical.

Getting the US birth certificate within 3 months of birth certainly helps though.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

So if I was to get him a first passport, is that sufficient for him to be registered with the necessary agencies? (ie can I then let the passport lapse and not keep renewing it?) Looks like the passport is cheaper than registering the birth.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

If he lost the passport, or if it expires and not renewed within 10 years, maybe less for a kids, then would need to go through proof of UK citizenship all over again.

If you register the birth with the embassy, you don't need to actually get the certificate, you can get that for a fiver or whatever at any births/deaths registry in the UK while on a visit.

Also don't need to bother with a UK passport as the US one will be all he needs to travel on, for now at least.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

The Sproutlet turns 1 in a week or so but we never bothered getting her a UK birth certificate, figuring that she'd only eat it if we did.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Most secure approach to document citizenship for the long term is to get a consular birth certificate and at least a first British passport.

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

The issue of expat children and their children is getting more and more publicity as a number of them are discovering they are essentially "stateless"--no passport and no hopes of a passport. This was a rather famous case involving a Canadian expat who ran into the same problems of being a second generation expat.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/life...126-189xc.html

Re: British birth certificate for US born baby
 

Can usually be fixed if people actually know the rules and what questions to ask. In the case of the child born in Belgium, no-one has spotted that the (Canadian) father born in Bermuda 43 years ago is also a British citizen (birth in a British territory), and hence the child is British by descent. So not stateless.

Child can be sponsored into Canada as a PR and immediately granted citizenship (3 year waiting period does not apply to children).