Nal wrote:Vinny..Thanks for your reply. Appreciate it.
Sakura..Yes, I would like them to. I do understand that the UK has a 3 year criteria that I am frankly unsure at this time if we will ever fulfill. No decisions there yet. If you have any links/sites you can guide me to to understand this 'complex situation ' you mention I would appreciate that and will read up more.
Lets say in the long run...will a child benefit from a UK passport as opposed to an Indian one...I know broad based question and sure personal situations are different for everyone but generally speaking I am just really inclined to believe there may be a long term benefit to acquire this for them...any thoughts?
There is a very brilliant guideline on the UKCOSA website:
http://www.ukcosa.org.uk/student/inform ... ition_fees (go down to "financial support" and click on one of the "tuition fees" buttons), which explains the three years residency rules.
It basically mentions that
1. you must have resided in the European Union or European Economic Area (EU / EEA) for three years prior to the start date of your course (e.g. if your course starts 20th September 2008, you should have resided in the area from 19th September 2005-2008...I believe so)
and
2. your main purpose was not to seek full-time education
To explain the second point better, I'll give an example of someone I know, who became an Italian citizen through descent, had never lived in the EEA area and is now attending university in the UK. This person is paying international fees (£13,000 I think), as he doesn't qualify for Home fees. He has had to do the course part-time, because if he studied full-time, his residency here would not count towards his ability to pay Home fees - and he checked with the university on this.
So, it's a tricky one to benefit from, if you don't already live here.
As for whether or not a UK passport would help....it depends on what they want. How old are they? Where would they eventually like to settle? The obvious benefit is that it allows them to live and work freely across the EEA AND to travel most of the world without a visa, but it depends on where their heart lies.
However, am I right in thinking that they are already British citizens and would have to formally renounce it in order to retain Indian citizenship? I think this is also the same for you, as, from what I know about Indian nationality, they do not allow dual citizenship.
Thus...are you not breaking some sort of law (albeit unknowingly, I'm not blaming you)?
