MN1 for child with British passport

Dear forum members I have a question that is slightly complex regarding my daughter’s citizenship.

• I am an EEA national and arrived to the UK in February 2008 with my wife which at that time was non EEA. She obtained an EEA family permit.

• I worked from February 2018 until April 2010 when I was made redundant. I was unemployed for almost 11 months, when I was searching for a job and we also took some time to travel overseas. I came back to work to my current employer in March 2011.

• In the meantime my wife obtained EEA nationality from my country so she did not renew her EEA family permit when it expired in 2013 as she no longer needed it.

• Our daughter was born in October 2013. We registered her in the consulate in London and she obtained an EEA passport.

• In October 2015 we applied for a British passport for her. I included a copy of my employment history in the UK from HMRC as supporting evidence that we had lived in the UK for over 5 years when she was born. She received the British passport a few weeks later.

• On March 2019 my wife and I applied for an EEA PR document. We sent documents to prove residency and employment since 2013 (6 years).

• Afterwards we applied and were naturalised as British citizens on November 2019.

My question has to do with my daughter’s passport and nationality. I assumed when we applied for her British passport that the requirement was for us to have lived in the UK for more than 5 years when she was born. But with all the applications I now understand the concept of exercising treaty rights. Since we did not have CSI during the 11 month period when I was unemployed in 2010/2011, I wonder if she was given a British passport by mistake and if she might have problems renewing it in the future.

Would it make sense to register her as a British citizen with a MN1 form? And would there be any issues doing that given that she already has a British passport?

Essentially, I don’t want her to be in a situation where her British citizenship is put into question when she is an adult and it could be difficult for her to obtain BC at that time.

petea wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 02, 2020 5:14 pm

Dear forum members I have a question that is slightly complex regarding my daughter’s citizenship.

• I am an EEA national and arrived to the UK in February 2008 with my wife which at that time was non EEA. She obtained an EEA family permit.

• I worked from February 2018 until April 2010 when I was made redundant. I was unemployed for almost 11 months, when I was searching for a job and we also took some time to travel overseas. I came back to work to my current employer in March 2011.

• In the meantime my wife obtained EEA nationality from my country so she did not renew her EEA family permit when it expired in 2013 as she no longer needed it.

• Our daughter was born in October 2013. We registered her in the consulate in London and she obtained an EEA passport.

• In October 2015 we applied for a British passport for her. I included a copy of my employment history in the UK from HMRC as supporting evidence that we had lived in the UK for over 5 years when she was born. She received the British passport a few weeks later.

• On March 2019 my wife and I applied for an EEA PR document. We sent documents to prove residency and employment since 2013 (6 years).

• Afterwards we applied and were naturalised as British citizens on November 2019.

My question has to do with my daughter’s passport and nationality. I assumed when we applied for her British passport that the requirement was for us to have lived in the UK for more than 5 years when she was born. But with all the applications I now understand the concept of exercising treaty rights. Since we did not have CSI during the 11 month period when I was unemployed in 2010/2011, I wonder if she was given a British passport by mistake and if she might have problems renewing it in the future.

Would it make sense to register her as a British citizen with a MN1 form? And would there be any issues doing that given that she already has a British passport?

Essentially, I don’t want her to be in a situation where her British citizenship is put into question when she is an adult and it could be difficult for her to obtain BC at that time.

What nationality are u

Tiktok wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 02, 2020 7:01 pm

What nationality are u

OP came under EU regulations the nationality is not relevant as far as I can see.

I don't believe CSI is/was an issue - you were employed (exercising treaty rights) and unemployed for a while. CSI is a requirement for students and self-sufficient persons. As an unemployed person you were still entitled to health care and unemployment benefits. During your PR application was there any query about CSI? On the face of it I don't see a problem. There are quite a few discussions about CSI here, sometimes quite confusing.

Was your wife working in the UK as an EEA national while you were unemployed in the UK? Such time could also count towards your gaining of PR.

alterhase58 wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:28 pm

Tiktok wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 02, 2020 7:01 pm

What nationality are u

OP came under EU regulations the nationality is not relevant as far as I can see.

I don't believe CSI is/was an issue - you were employed (exercising treaty rights) and unemployed for a while. CSI is a requirement for students and self-sufficient persons. As an unemployed person you were still entitled to health care and unemployment benefits. During your PR application was there any query about CSI? On the face of it I don't see a problem. There are quite a few discussions about CSI here, sometimes quite confusing.

Thanks for your post. There was no query about CSI during our PR application because we applied in early 2019 and I had been continuously working for almost 8 years (I was unemployed in 2010/2011).

I was unemployed for roughly 11 months in 2010/2011 but I did not apply for Jobseekers Allowance or register at the Jobcentre. We also travelled overseas for around 7 months, coming back to the UK for a few days half way through those 7 months.

Richard W wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 02, 2020 10:13 pm

Was your wife working in the UK as an EEA national while you were unemployed in the UK? Such time could also count towards your gaining of PR.

Thanks for your post. My wife was not working during that time.

If anyone has any advice I would appreciate your input.
Thanks

Hi, I was wondering if anyone has any feedback.

I am an EEA national, now also a naturalised British citizen, and arrived to the UK in 2008.
My daughter was born in the UK in 2013, over 5 years since we arrived. We applied for a British passport for her in 2015 which was issued a few weeks later.

The issue is that I now have some doubts if she was technically a British citizen by birth. I was unemployed for 11 months between 2010 and 2011. My wife was not working either during that period and we were not claiming any benefits. We were self sufficient while I was looking for a new job but we did not have CSI during that time.

I don’t want to risk my daughter facing any potential issues in the future to renew her passport and her British nationality being put in doubt, so we were considering registering her as a British citizen with form MN1. I was wondering if there would be any issues doing that due to the fact that she already has a British passport (which has now recently expired). Both my wife and I are both now naturalised British citizens.

I posted this question earlier this year. There is some more detail in my original post:
british-citizenship/mn1-for-child-with- ... 98527.html

Thanks in advance for your help.

A child who is already a British citizen cannot be registered as a British citizen.

I think your best option would be to apply for a DCPR with evidence of having acquired PR before the birth of your child. If such a DCPR (pre-dating the birth of your child) is issued, then that (along with their British birth certificate) would be sufficient proof of their British citizenship.

Keep in mind that you can only apply for a DCPR before the end of the year, so hurry.

EDIT: Topics merged.

secret.simon wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 05, 2020 6:49 pm

A child who is already a British citizen cannot be registered as a British citizen.

I think your best option would be to apply for a DCPR with evidence of having acquired PR before the birth of your child. If such a DCPR (pre-dating the birth of your child) is issued, then that (along with their British birth certificate) would be sufficient proof of their British citizenship.

Keep in mind that you can only apply for a DCPR before the end of the year, so hurry.

Thanks for your quick response. That is the issue, I don't think I had acquired PR before the birth of my daughter because we had lived in the UK for over 5 years but during almost 1 year during that period I was unemployed and did not have CSI, so technically speaking I guess I was not exercising treaty rights during those 11 months.

I have a DCPR which I used for my naturalisation but it was issued in 2019 and dated 2018, so years after my daughter was born.

If we try to register her with form MN1 could that get rejected because she already has a British passport despite that not proving her British citizenship?

petea wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 05, 2020 7:08 pm

I have a DCPR which I used for my naturalisation but it was issued in 2019 and dated 2018, so years after my daughter was born.

Reapply for a DCPR with proof of having acquired it before her birth, which should be the same proof that you applied with for her first British passport.

That will test the evidence and you will know one way or the other whether the Home Office considers that you have acquired PR before your child's birth or not.

You can then make a more informed decision on whether to apply for registration on MN1 or not.

I'll cc in @vinny for thoughts on whether a British citizen whose citizenship is in doubt can pre-emptively register as a British citizen.

If registering, then they should check.

How to consider registration of minors by entitlement and discretion
Before considering registration you must check whether the child is already a British citizen. The minor may already be a British citizen without the parents realising it, in which case there is no need to register.

If the applicant is not already a British citizen you must consider whether:
• the child has an entitlement to registration through birth
• the child meets the normal criteria for registration at discretion
• the case is exceptionally compelling or compassionate

If child was automatically British, then I think they should refund the Registration Fees.

Inappropriate/void applications
If an individual submits an application which could never be considered or becomes such during the consideration process, either because of the status they already hold or because of the provisions of law, the application cannot proceed. In these circumstances, the application must be cancelled (voided) and the full fee refunded.

Thanks a lot vinny and secret.simon for your help. I might try to register my daughter. I hope that does not create any problems regarding my daughter's BC.

Regarding the DCPR, this guidance document https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... gov-uk.pdf mentions that a self-sufficient person must provide proof that they have CSI which I didn't have for the period when I was not employed so on that basis I would not have been exercising treaty rights for a full 5 years before my daughter was born.

There is also a jobseeker category, but the guidance is a bit confusing and I am not sure if I qualify or provide sufficient proof since I was not registered at the Jobcentre and was also travelling during the 11 months that I was between jobs. They also refer to a relevant period of 3 months for jobseeker but I was between jobs for around 11 months.

When I applied for my daughter's passport, in addition to my passport I included my wife's EEA family permit and a copy of of my employment history in the UK from HMRC as supporting evidence which clearly included the employment gap.