Child born abroad to naturalised UK citizen - multi citizenship

Well. Now I don't understand. What is it jus soli? What does it means for me if I will have child born lets say in Spain and I have Czech and english passport and my wife Portuguese?

Saladin0011 wrote:Well. Now I don't understand. What is it jus soli? What does it means for me if I will have child born lets say in Spain and I have Czech and english passport and my wife Portuguese?

Nothing, for Spain does not have jus soli (literally, 'law of the ground').

Now if you replaced Spain by the USA, you would have a good example. The child would be an American citizen (like Boris Johnson), and then whether child was Czech, British or Portuguese would depend on the rules by which long-term foreign residence extinguishes nationality. British nationality only descends one generation amongst British citizens living overseas, but British citizens are British citizens for life (unless they earn the displeasure of the Secretary of State or renounce their citizenship).

Most countries employ nationality law which is a combination of jus soli and jus sanguinis.

Jus soli is Latin for "right of the soil" and jus sanguinis is Latin for "right of blood". They are used to differentiate between how citizenship can be acquired at birth, for example based on WHERE you are born or WHO you are born TO.

The USA is just one example of a country which applies unconditional jus soli - anyone who is born in the USA is automatically an American citizen (with very very few exceptions). The status of the parents is irrelevant. This is the reason why our new Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, also has American citizenship as he was born in New York.

The UK used to be the same, but the law has been significantly tightened up since the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force. Now, at least one parent must be legally settled in the UK, or the child does not acquire British citizenship at birth (plenty of cases on this forum).

Most countries will allow parents to pass their own citizenship down at least one generation to children born outside their own birth country. For example if you are born or naturalised British, and you have a child anywhere else in the world, it automatically acquired British citizenship by descent.

Due to the complexity and differences between some countries nationality laws, some odd situations can occur. For example, it is conceivably possible to acquire four citizenships at birth. My sister has three. It is also possible to be born stateless, although most countries have specific provisions to deal with this too.

Well. Now I don't understand. What is it jus soli? What does it means for me if I will have child born lets say in Spain and I have Czech and english passport and my wife Portuguese?

Depending on the nationality laws of the individual countries, the child could end up with up to 4 citizenships from birth. Happens a lot these days, for example I'm having a baby this year and due to mine and the dad's citizenships and status in the UK, she will probably end up with 6 citizenships from birth. Super strange but hey why not^^

LilyLalilu wrote:

Well. Now I don't understand. What is it jus soli? What does it means for me if I will have child born lets say in Spain and I have Czech and english passport and my wife Portuguese?

Depending on the nationality laws of the individual countries, the child could end up with up to 4 citizenships from birth. Happens a lot these days, for example I'm having a baby this year and due to mine and the dad's citizenships and status in the UK, she will probably end up with 6 citizenships from birth. Super strange but hey why not^^

I fully expect to see a photo of your baby surrounded by 6 different passports

I fully expect to see a photo of your baby surrounded by 6 different passports

Haha, that'd be funny! Would probably be accompanied by a photo of us looking sad and £400 out of pocket after paying for all those passports

Moved to appropriate forum.

LilyLalilu wrote:

I fully expect to see a photo of your baby surrounded by 6 different passports

Haha, that'd be funny! Would probably be accompanied by a photo of us looking sad and £400 out of pocket after paying for all those passports

Well worth it