Child born abroad

Hi,

I am an EU citizen who has been living in the UK since 2010 and naturalized as a British citizen in 2018.

In 2022 I had a child who was born abroad because the mother (also an EU citizen with Pre-settled status) was temporarily living there at the time.

We came back to the UK in 2023 and unfortunately I did NOT apply for EUSS for him because we did not know we had to (I know it's our fault).

I applied for him to get settled status using the Lounes route in February this year but the application has been rejected. No explanation provided yet (maybe we will receive a call/mail not sure), but I think it's because we were supposed to apply within 3 months of coming back to the UK.

Now he lives with us in the UK and goes to nursery etc, but apparently he is not allowed to stay anymore, and he should leave the country.

We are very worried, and we are not sure what to do next, any advice?

Your child is British by descent.

Apply for a British passport directly.

Yes we could do that, but then they won't be able to pass the UK citizenship to their children, unless they are born in the UK. So ideally I wanted him to become a UK citizen in his own right.

You can't change the type of british citizenship the child has. There isn't an application you can make for the child to British otherwise than by descent.

As a British citizen, the child cannot be granted an immigration status as a British citizen is not subject to immigration control or restrictions.