adrenaline

Hi, I just recently sent in all my forms and everything I need to renounce my british citizenship. Does anyone know how long this process usually takes?

ljaw2002uk

Why are you renouncing your British citizenship?

(Welcome to BE btw).

Ash UK/US

Thats exactly what I was thinking...

why would you want to do that?

fatbrit

I just shot myself in the foot. That took less than a second if you want to know.

adrenaline

Had to do it for military clearance. I was born in the US and have lived here all my life, and found out that I'm actually a citizen because my mom was born in England. Not a big deal for me personally to renounce it I just realized I was technically citizen about 2 weeks ago, and I feel I have no allegiance to Britain in any way. I think it's a little ridiculous, to be honest, that they consider people citizens that way, and without my mother or myself choosing that I bear that citizenship. They said it needed to be done so I sent it all in about a week ago. P.S. did you guys watch the usa england game in world cup 2010?

ljaw2002uk

I don't know the answer to your question, and to be honest I am not sure if anyone on here will.

I would suggest you call them and ask their current processing times. 0845 010 5200 (from the US 011 44 845 010 5200).

kimilseung

FYI There is still the death penalty for being a traitor in the UK.
(actually, Google tells me there isn't)

fatbrit

If your mother had been American and you'd lived in the UK all your life, you'd probably be an American citizen as well as British -- so it's not that strange.

What's strange is that though you've never claimed the citizenship, the military believes it would make you a security risk. They probably also don't understand that you could reclaim it even after renouncing by....yep....filling in another form. In fact, you'd have to reject it, apply again, then reject again to be completely out of opportunities. Probably best not to tell them unless they're footing the bill.

Poor old Bradley Manning was most probably a UK citizen BTW. Perhaps the US military is delusional enough to believe that little military disaster could have been averted had they followed a similar path. Well that, I suppose, and a little torture pour encourager les autres.

fatbrit

Death by drowning in hot tea while the crowd shouts sorry!

adrenaline

Yea I tried calling that number . It's an answering machine and it's pretty much impossible to talk to an actual person, as far as I can tell , unless I say i'm having an emergency, which I'm obviously not going to do. I can't find it anywhere online, and it's the last thing that i'm waiting on to go through before I can sign and begin the military stuff. So just a bit impatient but I'm sure they have a lot going on and it shouldn't take longer than 6 months at most anyhow was just wondering if anyone had any idea whatsoever .. p.p.s. guess you guys missed that game

nun

The US does not require you to renounce citizenship to get a clearance, you need to show that you don't have a foreign preference over the USA. They will ask you to return any foreign passports. If you don't have a UK passport and have made no attempt to claim UK citizenship you should not be required to do anything, you may not even be a UK citizen depending on when you were born and you mother's citizenship, is she a UK citizen?

However, renouncing the UK citizenship can't hurt your security clearance and as you have no ties to the UK I see no problem in doing it. People get precious about citizenship, but I take the attitude that you should do the most practical thing. I'd never give up UK citizenship because I don't want to jeopardize my UK stat pension, access to the NHS or ability to move back to be with family......

Egon

Damn right get that limey citizenship out of you boy, we kicked their asses in Vietnam the god damn commie Nazis.

robin1234

I wonder, do Americans really call British people "limeys"?

I just looked up limey in the Oxford English Dictionary. The first definition is; "In the former British colonies (esp. Austral., N.Z., and S. Afr.), an English immigrant." fair enough.. the second definition is; "U.S. An English ship; an English (or British) sailor; hence gen., an Englishman, a Briton" But, when I look at the dozen or so examples of its use between 1918 and 1973, it looks like most of them are from BRITISH writers!! They include Graham Greene, Eric Linklater, and the Listener magazine..

Example;
1931 E. Linklater Juan in Amer. ii. vii. 115 ‘An Englishman,’ he marvelled, ‘the first limey I ever saw shot in Chicago.’

ljaw2002uk

My FIL calls me a limey..

nethead

IIRC it's something to do with British sailors being fed limes so they wouldn't get scurvy. Something like that.

ETA:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limey