MN1 approved and certificate issued - travel abroad before ceremony?

We received our ILR about 2 years ago together with our child (born in the UK while we were on Tier 2) - since my employer was willing to cover the cost I also applied ILR for him anyway.

Now we have just received an invitation letter from our local council to attend the citizenship ceremony for all of us (2 adults + 1 child). The adults were obviously through the AN1 route. The child was included in the same online application but I believe for children it is MN1.

I have the following questions:

1. I have read that some people have their children's certificate through post. Some others have "21 days to book a ceremony with council - child attendance is optional - on that day the child's certificate will be handed over to parents" (this is our case). Why is this difference?

2. The council have told us that they have "all our certificates ready in their office" (I am not sure about the process, but I guess HO issues and prints and sends them by post to councils).
I understand that for adults, the ILR BRPs are still perfectly valid before the ceremony. But is the child's ILR BRP still valid, given that the certificate has been issued (just that we haven't retrieved it from the council)?

Here are some very similar posts, but I need some classification as the situation is slightly different (not yet attended ceremony).

british-citizenship/travel-after-natura ... 19870.html
british-citizenship/can-i-travel-before ... 44668.html

Many thanks!

mccheb wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 13, 2024 1:46 pm

1. I have read that some people have their children's certificate through post. Some others have "21 days to book a ceremony with council - child attendance is optional - on that day the child's certificate will be handed over to parents" (this is our case). Why is this difference?

Children born in the UK have an entitlement to register as British citizens when either one parent gets ILR/Settled Status. Their registration is not in question. Their registration certificates are likely mailed across.

Children born outside the UK register as British citizens at discretion. One of the common requirements (there are various different routes to register for them) is that they can register as British citizens if one of their parents is or has applied to be a British citizen (and the other parent and child have ILR/Settled Status). As their registration could based on one parent becoming a British citizen at the same time, their registration certificate would be handed over at the same time as the parents' naturalisation certificate and not mailed across.

It could also be that as the MN1 (children) and AN (adults) application were made together, they would also be dealt with and issued together to the local council.

mccheb wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 13, 2024 1:46 pm

2. The council have told us that they have "all our certificates ready in their office" (I am not sure about the process, but I guess HO issues and prints and sends them by post to councils).
I understand that for adults, the ILR BRPs are still perfectly valid before the ceremony. But is the child's ILR BRP still valid, given that the certificate has been issued (just that we haven't retrieved it from the council)?

Interesting question. I would presume that the registration certificates will be dated at the same time as the parents' naturalisation certificate.

I would hold off on any avoidable travel abroad until the certificates are in hand.

Many thanks for your response and I agree with your advice. We however can't afford to cancel the booked flights, etc. I will report back to the forum.

Could you speak to the council and ask if you can pick up your child's certificate ahead of the ceremony, explaining the situation? If it is like secret.simon suggests above, your child is still not technically British and therefore can travel on their current passport. Again building on that interpretation, I would reckon the certificate will be dated with the ceremony's date - so you will all become British on the same day. In that case all your BRPs are still valid. If you do speak to the council, it could be worth understanding what date will appear on your child's certificate.

I think the Stupid may allow an unexpired BRP holder to travel.

Many thanks for all the advice. Update below:

I contacted my local council's citizenship services and asked whether I can collect my child's certificate before parents's ceremony actually takes place. They said fine, but also told me the following:

1. My child's certificate already has a printed "issue date", which is exactly the date of the invitation letters from (to correct my first post in this thread) a Home Office department in Liverpool. So my child is already a BC.

2. They (the citizenship services at my local council) have explicit notes / guidances (maybe for advising applicants) along the lines of "once they become BCs their ILR BRPs cease to be valid, and they cannot use naturalisation certificates to enter the UK".

Notwithstanding the above, they suggested me not to collect the certificate, and if questioned by an immigration officer I can just say that we haven't attended the ceremony and have no certificate for the child.
While I am unsure whether this is an appropriate formal advice, obviously this was the simplest and cheapest solution for us, and it turned out to be fine (no questions asked at the border whatsoever).

In hindsight this is still quite risky: if an immigration officer decides that my child cannot be allowed in (we are non-visa nationals, but the purpose of entering the UK is certainly not tourism), we will have to do CoE-RoA or first British passport from overseas, both can be nightmarish as far as I am concerned.
If time permits, I would still definitely recommend getting the child's passport (fast track or 1-day premium service) before travel.

Thanks for your feedback.
Certainly a British passport should be obtained before travel if at all possible, applicable for children or adults.

There's one thing to note, a British citizen (like your child now is) cannot be refused entry to the UK as citizens have an absolute right of abode in the UK, even if they can't show a passport. Clearly it might take a bit longer at the border (with certificate or other evidence). I guess the council guidance is to encourage to obtain a passport. The certificate is not a travel document and won't be recognised abroad but UK Border Force officers cannot ignore a document which confers citizenship on the holder.