dual-nationality and residence card

Hi

I am an EU national living in UK and my wife is dual Japanese + New Zealand national.

She currently holds an EEA family permit + UK Residence Card on her New Zealand passport.

When we have children, we’d like them to be able to obtain Japanese nationality if they wish to do so one day (a right of anyone born to a Japanese national). To do this, we’d need to register our UK marriage + child birth certificates etc. with the Japanese consulate in the UK. This is where the problem arises, as they will want to see the relevant UK visa/residence card on her Japanese passport which allowed her to reside in the UK in the first place. She cannot show them the EEA permit/residence card on her New Zealand passport, as Japan does not allow dual-nationality (NZ does), and she’d be forced to give up her Japanese passport. We thought about getting a biometric residence card which is separate from a passport, but that lists the nationality on the card which would say NZ, so it would be no good to show the Japanese consulate either.

What we need is a way to transfer her residence card to her Japanese passport or obtain the biometric residence card which only lists her as a Japanese national.

Anyone know if this is possible?

The only thing I can think of is to apply for the biometric residence card with a cover letter to Home Office explaining that she wishes to only use her Japanese passport going forward so to please list her as a Japanese national on the card.

Any advice/confirmation is much appreciated!

moralev wrote:Hi

I am an EU national living in UK and my wife is dual Japanese + New Zealand national.

She currently holds an EEA family permit + UK Residence Card on her New Zealand passport.

When we have children, we’d like them to be able to obtain Japanese nationality if they wish to do so one day (a right of anyone born to a Japanese national). To do this, we’d need to register our UK marriage + child birth certificates etc. with the Japanese consulate in the UK. This is where the problem arises, as they will want to see the relevant UK visa/residence card on her Japanese passport which allowed her to reside in the UK in the first place. She cannot show them the EEA permit/residence card on her New Zealand passport, as Japan does not allow dual-nationality (NZ does),

...

What we need is a way to transfer her residence card to her Japanese passport or obtain the biometric residence card which only lists her as a Japanese national.

Anyone know if this is possible?

The only thing I can think of is to apply for the biometric residence card with a cover letter to Home Office explaining that she wishes to only use her Japanese passport going forward so to please list her as a Japanese national on the card.

Any advice/confirmation is much appreciated!

Your wife may no longer be a Japanese citizen so any children would not be Japanese.

Suppressing material facts or being economical with the truth does not sound a good idea.
Embassies of countries who do not allow dual nationality may be good at spotting this behaviour.

The other option seems to be give up NZ nationality.
That may avoid putting any child's future at risk of potential loss of nationality if it is gained by suppression of material facts.

moralev wrote:my wife is dual Japanese + New Zealand national

Are you sure? She likely is a solely NZ national, almost certainly breaking Japanese law by possessing a Japanese passport that she has no right to because...

moralev wrote:Japan does not allow dual-nationality

By acquiring NZ citizenship (presumably by naturalisation), she will likely have automatically lost Japanese citizenship, by force of Japanese law.

If she then fraudulently acquires Japanese citizenship for her children by claiming to be a Japanese citizen when she is not, they will almost certainly be stripped of such citizenship that has been acquired by fraud. In the case of your children, as they could fall back on your EEA citizenship and that of their mother's NZ citizenship, it will be even easier to strip their Japanese citizenship as they will have other citizenships/passports to fall back on.

And remember that there is no statute of limitations on loss of citizenship obtained fraudently. They could have the sword of Damocles hanging on their heads all their life.

Mere possession of a passport does not confirm citizenship if she has obtained the passport by omission of material facts in the passport application (almost certainly a crime in Japan).

I would get your wife to get the Japanese Embassy to verify that she still has Japanese citizenship and only if they say that she does would I proceed on the course of action that you have mapped out.

noajthan wrote:The other option seems to be give up NZ nationality.

I do not think that that is an option. By acquisition of NZ citizenship, I believe that your wife has already lost her Japanese citizenship and hence, the only nationality that she has is her NZ citizenship.