COSPhil

Firstly, thanks all who have given helpful advice on a range of issues surrounding my K1 move to be with my fiancee in Colorado.

A friend of ours on our last visit enquired about UK Citizenship, believing she might be eligible.

I wanted to see if anyone had come across this....

She is a USC, born in 1981 in New York state, to two USC parents. (Bear with me).

Her father was born in 1949 in Glasgow, Scotland to two UKC parents and later emigrated in 1954 (aged 6) to Buffalo, NY.

He became a USC via naturalization. His belief is that he gave up UK citizenship as a result. He needs to check the date, but it is likely that this was in the late 1950s, or early 1960s.

I believed it is unlikely he actually gave up UK citizenship and therefore needs to fill out form NS, providing a copy of evidence to get a certificate of UK citizenship from which he can then apply for a UK passport.

If not, he will need to apply to have his nationality re-instated, a significantly more length process. This requires him to prove that he had to give up UK nationality in order to acquire US nationality (as oppose to just did so voluntarily). I'm aware that is not the case now - but can anyone confirm if it was the case in the 50s/60s?

Either case would make him a UKC otherwise than by descent (ie. by Birth).

For the friend who enquired, she would like to acquire UK citizenship. I believe that should her father be able to prove he is a UKC otherwise than by descent, she should be able to acquire UK Citizenship by descent via her Father. However, I can't find the relevant UKBA documentation/process to support that - only via a UKC mother.

Apologies if this is the wrong area, but any general advice appreciated.

MarylandNed

I think it's unlikely that her father obtained US citizenship through naturalization in the late 50s or early 60s - simply because he would still have been a minor by then (if he was born in 1949). Minors can't become USC's by naturalization. It's more likely that he became a USC by derivation (i.e. whenever his parents became USC's via naturalization).

I think your friend is a UKC by descent through her father:

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

COSPhil

I read that exact page, but now re-reading that, is it possible she could simply submit an NS form, confirmation of citizenship along with Birth Certificates for her father. She doesn't need to go through a registration as a British citizen process?

Apologies, you're quite correct derivation is the correct term, not naturalization. However, does this affect if he would have had to give up UK citizenship? Thus he wouldn't be a UK citizen at the time of my friend's Birth.

Thanks again.

JAJ

British law changed on 1.1.1949 - from that date, acquisition of a foreign citizenship did not cause loss of British nationality.

COSPhil

Ah -it was the British who had the law, not the US. That's good news! Did the US have any similar laws that caused the loss of the "other" nationality.

ian-mstm

It wouldn't matter if they did. US law is not binding on any other country. It's the UK, not the US, who decides who is or isn't a UKC.

Ian

BritInParis

Depends on whether the father formally renounced his British citizenship to the British government as part of his US naturalisation process. The British didn't have a problem with dual nationality after 1949, but the US didn't recognise dual nationality until a couple of Supreme Court cases in the late '70s/early '80s and therefore may have required it. If he renounced, then when his daughter was born in 1981, she wouldn't have been a British citizen.

Reapplying now for his British citizenship would make the father British again, but the daughter would still not be British by descent as he was not British at the time of her birth.