Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

I am originally from the Uk and married my american wife, I have a green card and uk passport and my wife has an american passport.
We are due to have a baby on 4 of july (fitting i know) and starting to look into passports and who can get what.

Ideally in a perfect world I would want us all to have dual nationalities but that is another thread at another time I feel lol

For now I am curious as to if I can get my new-born either a) a uk passport or b) a dual citizenship and which is the best approach in luie of us all wanting to end up with dual citizenships - is their a strategy I should follow?

Id rather go for b) but a) will be a good starting point, but something Im not sure on where to begin with.

If anyone has any thoughts I would love to hear them

Thanks!
Andy

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

If you are a UK citizen otherwise than by descent (e.g. you were born there), then your child will be a UK citizen by descent. There is nothing you need to do to obtain UK citizenship for the child - it will be automatic at birth. Read more here:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br.../bornoverseas/

To obtain PROOF of your child's UK citizenship, you can simply apply for a UK passport for the child. The benefit of this is questionable since passports for minors last 5 years and are expensive to obtain from outside the UK. Also, your child will be a US citizen at birth and US citizens are required by law to leave/enter the US on US passports. So the child will need to have a US passport to travel abroad anyway. The UK does not have similar rules for its citizens - so the child can actually visit the UK using the US passport.

If you want to obtain a UK passport for the child, start here:
https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

If you wish, you can register your child's birth with the UK authorities - a process known as consular birth registration. Whether you do so or not, does not affect the child's UK citizenship or ability to obtain a UK passport. It might help the child prove UK citizenship later in life though in case there are issues with other documentation. Start here:
https://www.gov.uk/register-a-birth

You can also do consular birth registration without obtaining the consular birth certificate (which is quite expensive). You can obtain a much cheaper certificate from the GRO in the UK from the September following the year of consular birth registration. So, for example, if you go through consular birth registration in 2013, you can obtain a birth cert from the GRO in September 2014.

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

The child will be a US citizen by virtue of being born in the US - and is immediately eligible for a US passport. The child will also be a UK citizen if you are a UK citizen "other than by descent". IOW, if you are eligible to pass UK citizenship to the child, the child will be a UKC. If both are true, the child will automatically have dual citizenship and be eligible for both a US and UK passport.

As for dual citizenship for all... you can apply to become a USC after you've had your GC for 3 years if you have also been married to your USC spouse/sponsor for 3 years (otherwise, you'd need to wait until you've been a PR for 5 years). As for your USC wife, she can't become a dual US/UK citizen without moving to the UK and living there for several years in a status that would eventually allow her to naturalize there.

Ian

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

Thank you for the responses!!

MarylandNed - this is great, I will look through the links at lunch and see where I get with them!

Ian-mstm - I was born in manchester, uk so a british citizen - therefore your saying my daughter will be eligible for dual?

I have had my green card for about 4 years now and married for 6. Good to hear theres hope for that too - theres a possibility we may all move back to uk down the line and then work on my wifes dual citizenship too!
Perfect, thanks for the advice!

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

I had a baby 7 months ago and registered the birth with the embassy.
it's expensive and they're sticklers for getting all the info / documentation in.

https://www.gov.uk/register-a-birth/y/united-states

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

thanks!, to be honest I just presumed this as a given sadly lol!!
Luckily the green card was equally a pain to get all the documents together - seems a lot of these overlap and we already have much what is needed - thanks for the link, very helpful!!

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

Unless you are a British citizen by decent...then yes your child is British by decent. That means the child cannot pass on British citizenship to his/her children unless certain conditions are met.

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

i was born in uk and so too my parents - thats british by decent correct?
I never thought that far ahead in regards to my daughters citizenship and what that means - so if she has children then they will be american only, if born in america?

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

You are British. Your child's children will be American...but there are circumstance where your child can become British...as opposed to British by decent...enabling him/her to pass on British citizenship

Plenty of info in the BE Wiki.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br.../bornoverseas/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nationality_law

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

she will need to have lived in the UK for a certain duration in order to pass it on I believe.

where in M'cr you from?

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

No - you are a UKC otherwise than by descent since you were born in the UK. This means you can pass UK citizenship on to your child born in the US. And the child will automatically be a dual citizen of the UK (by descent through you) and the US (by birth in the US).

Generally, yes. UK citizenship may normally descend to one generation born abroad. Read this:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/br.../bornoverseas/

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

I have nothing extra to add, but I just wanted to say my baby was due on July 4th LAST year! Little stinker didn't arrive until July 13th though... :sneaky:

I thoroughly enjoyed having that as my due date though. "Independence" Day, indeed.

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

Slightly off-topic - but congratulations on the news you will soon become a dad, and welcome to BE. Now you've found us I hope you will stick around.

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

thanks for all the help (and the congrats!!)- im wading through the links but this looks great! - such a useful resource you guys are.
Ill be sure to stick around and hopefully can be become as useful as you lot!!

Re: Having a baby in the US - brit married to american
 

That's what we like to hear. :thumbsup:

Sorry I forgot :o...welcome to BE and congratulations on soon becoming a proud dad. :thumbsup: