British Citizen

Does anyone know when a person will be considered as a British Citizen. Is it as soon as you get your naturalisation certificate OR is it after getting the British passport?

For naturalisation cases, you become a British citizen as soon as you have attended the citizenship ceremony (if applicable). A passport is just a travel document and not all British Citizens have British passports.

Further to what Xzibit1 has posted, there is no obligation on British Citizens to have a passport, but anyone that does not is just as much a British Citizen as those who do hold a British passport.

Many millions of British Citizens do not hold a valid passport, but of course they are eligible to apply for one whenever there is the need for one.

So just to add to all of that, you need to attend the citizenship ceremony, of course, because that is where you receive your certificate of naturalisation. As noted above, there is no requirement for you to have a British passport at all.

Obviously, it is likely to be useful to have one (both for travel and for purposes of proving identity etc in the UK), although if you retain your original citizenship on naturalisation you can apply to have a right of abode certificate placed in your current passport to allow you to enter the UK using it. However, there seems little if any advantage in doing that rather than obtaining a British passport.

Christophe wrote:Obviously, it is likely to be useful to have one (both for travel and for purposes of proving identity etc in the UK), although if you retain your original citizenship on naturalisation you can apply to have a right of abode certificate placed in your current passport to allow you to enter the UK using it. However, there seems little if any advantage in doing that rather than obtaining a British passport.

One disadvantage of a ROA certificate is it costs £135 which is more than a British passport. Almost seems like they would rather you applied for a British passport...

Thanks for the response.

djb123 wrote:One disadvantage of a ROA certificate is it costs £135 which is more than a British passport. Almost seems like they would rather you applied for a British passport...

Oh, I agree, I can see few if any advantages of a right of abode certificate over a British passport for most people, if not all.

Christophe wrote:

djb123 wrote:One disadvantage of a ROA certificate is it costs £135 which is more than a British passport. Almost seems like they would rather you applied for a British passport...

Oh, I agree, I can see few if any advantages of a right of abode certificate over a British passport for most people, if not all.

Originally, it used to cost £20 (twenty pounds) in the UK, with free transfers to new passports.

Vinny, that is right, and now, a restriction that came in when the fee was hiked considerably, if the person has a British Passport they will not put RoA into a non-British passport.

vinny wrote:Originally, it used to cost 20 pounds in the UK, with free transfers to new passports.

I know; in those days, not so long past, it could be well worth while having one as well as a British passport.