Guardianship and British Citizenhip

My wife and I are both British citizens, although my wife holds duel British & Thai nationality. We are the court appointed sole guardians of our 6 year old grand-daughter who is a Thai citizen (both her natural parents are Thai, although the mother had sole custody and parental responsibility until it was withdrawn and awarded to us). The court order, which was made in Thailand, withdraws all parental responsibility from the mother is absolute and permanent.

My question is, are we able to apply directly to register our grand-daughter as a British citizen?

Many thanks!

CBP wrote:My wife and I are both British citizens, although my wife holds duel British & Thai nationality. We are the court appointed sole guardians of our 6 year old grand-daughter who is a Thai citizen (both her natural parents are Thai, although the mother had sole custody and parental responsibility until it was withdrawn and awarded to us). The court order, which was made in Thailand, withdraws all parental responsibility from the mother is absolute and permanent.

My question is, are we able to apply directly to register our grand-daughter as a British citizen?

Many thanks!

I believe so, child is only six so I am hopeful that if you have complete guardianship of your granddaughter then you can start reading from page three in MN1 guide in this link and can apply. I would request to apply through Nationality Checking Service for further peace of mind. Good luck.

CBP wrote:My wife and I are both British citizens, although my wife holds duel British & Thai nationality. We are the court appointed sole guardians of our 6 year old grand-daughter who is a Thai citizen (both her natural parents are Thai, although the mother had sole custody and parental responsibility until it was withdrawn and awarded to us). The court order, which was made in Thailand, withdraws all parental responsibility from the mother is absolute and permanent.

My question is, are we able to apply directly to register our grand-daughter as a British citizen?

Many thanks!

Was the child born in UK (?) or Thailand?
Is she in UK or Thailand now?

Anyhow, yes, it appears you are able to do so.
You can apply to register the child under section 3(1) of BNA 1981 as the Home Secretary has a discretionary power for such cases.

See https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... 150402.pdf
- ref. section 9.21 onwards for guardians

Use form MN1.
It is a generic form that covers a lot of cases and the guidance is a little unclear relating to guardians.
See: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... n-form-mn1

It may take even more time than usual as foreign court papers are involved.
It may be more straighforward if the child is in UK.
It also seems to be a complex area so you may wish to seek further & professional advice.

Best of luck.

Thanks to you both for your replies and links - it's greatly appreciated.

To give you a little extra background, we were living in Thailand until a few weeks ago. My work has now taken us the The Netherlands, with my grand-daughter accompanying us on an EEA family permit. Potentially we could bring her back the UK using the Surinder Singh route, although that isn't really our goal here. It's more the added security of have her registered as British and the freedom to enter and leave, or live in the UK as needed. I'm also keen to avoid us having to spend the 5 year qualifying period back in the UK as it would severely restrict any future work opportunities.

Thanks again!

CBP wrote:Thanks to you both for your replies and links - it's greatly appreciated.

To give you a little extra background, we were living in Thailand until a few weeks ago. My work has now taken us the The Netherlands, with my grand-daughter accompanying us on an EEA family permit. Potentially we could bring her back the UK using the Surinder Singh route, although that isn't really our goal here. It's more the added security of have her registered as British and the freedom to enter and leave, or live in the UK as needed. I'm also keen to avoid us having to spend the 5 year qualifying period back in the UK as it would severely restrict any future work opportunities.

Thanks again!

The rules around discretionary registration of a minor seem to expect the child is in the UK.
For a successful registration, you would have to explore the impact of living & applying from outside the UK.

One of the factors clearly taken into consideration is whether you can make the case that the child's future lies in the UK.
You may not have to reside in UK for as long as 5 years before being able to show that but it's probably worth taking advice on such points of detail.

However your case, as a guardian, seems stronger than that in another recent post in the forum; that involved someone applying as the joint custodian of a child (with parental responsibility).

Best of luck.

I hope we could make a pretty strong case that her future lies back in the UK, simply by stating that we would be back there already rather than in a third country if her residency wasn't an issue. Ultimately, we do at some point wish to settle back in the UK, but when the time is right - although at this point we are not sure when that time will be, but having her residency would give us the freedom and security to make that decision on our terms, and whenever we wish.

All the best,

CBP

CBP wrote:I hope we could make a pretty strong case that her future lies back in the UK, simply by stating that we would be back there already rather than in a third country if her residency wasn't an issue.

I doubt that would cut it for you. Hence my request to book NCS and speak to them first, whenever you are back in UK. Good luck.

CBP wrote:I hope we could make a pretty strong case that her future lies back in the UK, simply by stating that we would be back there already rather than in a third country if her residency wasn't an issue. Ultimately, we do at some point wish to settle back in the UK, but when the time is right - although at this point we are not sure when that time will be, but having her residency would give us the freedom and security to make that decision on our terms, and whenever we wish.

All the best,

CBP

This is the HO you will be dealing with; for any dealings with HO you need to have it sewn up & water-tight.

For example, I had an 8-month legal battle over the validity of a type-written affidavit from a foreign lawyer.
Obvious forgery they said - when it wasn't; but I still had to battle to overturn a family visa refusal.

You will need to satisfy section 2 of the form on residence.

And for all section 3(1) BNA discretionary cases...

The child’s connections with the UK – we would expect the child to be free of any restrictions on his or her stay in the UK

- which can mean achieving settled status (ILR or PR);
- so you may well have to invoke S Singh for entry into UK with her in first place;

Also...

Where the child’s future is likely to lie;

The length of time the child has lived in the UK
– we expect at least 2 years residence (particularly if the child is over the age of 13)