Are my children already British Citizens?

[kfk]

I am a German national who has been living and working in the UK since 1994. I've had 2 chilren with my unmarried British partner in 2003 and 2005. I am currently applying for British Citizenship and would like to obtain it for my children as well. I have done the Life in the UK test and have completed the forms for myself and was doing a section 1(3) application for the children. However, on calling the Home Office to confirm I had the right forms for submission they suggested that they thought the children were already British and hence no need to register them. They stated that this is because of the Lassal ruling and that I should get confrmation from the passport office. The Passport Office had never heard of the Lassal ruling. Are the children British Citizens already with entitlement to a British Passport?

The Passport Office says that if they were born before 2000 or after April 2006 they would be British at birth. In between those dates they are not unless I have a ILR stamp in my passport (which I do not).

The Home Office says that the Lassal ruling applies and that the Passport Office understanding of the law is incorrect, but they will not put this opinion in writing. The Home Office believes that if I can prove that I lived in the UK for 5 years before 2000, then I already had permanent residence when the children were born and hence they have British citizenship from birth, so no expensive citizenship application is required for them; only a passport application is required. I have read the Lassal, not following how it applies in my case. Can anyone explain how it is relevant?

Is the Home Office or Passport Office correct?
If the Home Office is correct how do I persuade the Passport Office?

Thanks

[vinny]

For those who have not read Lassal, see also

New ECJ ruling on Permanent Residence.
Secretary of State for Work & Pensions v Lassal [2009] EWCA Civ 157 (10 March 2009)
Lassal (European citizenship) [2010] EUECJ C-162/09_O (11 May 2010)
Lassal (European citizenship) [2010] EUECJ C-162/09 (07 October 2010)
Vassallo (Qualifying residence; pre-UK accession) [2014] UKUT 313 (IAC) (11 Apr 2014)

[vinny]

If the Home Office is correct how do I persuade the Passport Office?

Apply for Confirmation of British nationality status for the children. Use these confirmations when applying for their British passports.

[JAJ]

kfk - Are you the mother of the children, or the father?

[kfk]

To JAJ - Mother. Apologies for not being clear.

To Vinny - Thank you for your answer. Are you able to explain how the Lassal ruling applies in my case?

[elias]

If your partner is British as you said, you don't need to stress yourself, the children are already British Citizens.
Check from the website below: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/briti ... territory/

If you were born in the United Kingdom on or after 1 January 1983, you are a British citizen if at the time of your birth one of your parents was:
â– a British citizen; or
â– legally settled in the United Kingdom.
By the virtue of your partner being british, they are already.

[vinny]

Chidren's father's status is irrelevant as father is unmarried. Does not satisfy the meaning of "parent".

[TracyCK]

Chidren's father's status is irrelevant as father is unmarried. Does not satisfy the meaning of "parent".

If the partner is listed on the birth certificate(s) as the father, or parentage can be proven by a DNA test, then this satisfies the definition of parent in the document that this links to and as such, the children are British Citizens by birthright.

[John]

TracyCK, did you read the definition of "parent" in the link provided by Vinny? We are talking here about children born before 01.07.06. So Citizenship of father, not married to mother, is irrelevant.

But the children appear to be British, through their mother, who in accordance with Lassal had PR status at the time of their birth, so the UK-born children have been, we can now say, British from the moment of birth.

[TracyCK]

Apologies, I must have missed the part about being born before 2006 and should have known better that Vinny would have been correct!

On a personal note, I find it quite wrong that the proven father couldn't pass down his nationality if the parents weren't actually married and that when the law was altered, it wasn't done retroactively.