Visa for Baby born in UK to settled parents

Dear Friends,
I and my wife are Indian citizens with ILR status in the UK. Our child was born here in the UK this year.
Since we are both Indian citizens with intentions of going back to India we decided to apply for an Indian passport for our child. We knew our child was elegible for a British passport but felt if the child wanted an UK passport once she was old enough she could apply for one later.
Now when we did apply for an settlement visa, on the Indian passport, for our child, we were told by the home office that since our child is a British citizen by birth the visa application is invalid. There was no furthur detail in the home office mail.
Can someone advise me what my options are ?
Is there some way I can get a visa for my child ?
Is there any other UK travel document other than a passport which is applicable in this case ?
Do I have to apply for UK passport - in which case I will have to return the childs Indian passport ?

Thanks a lot in advance.

You need to get a Certificate of Entitlement to the Right of Abode. This way your kid retains an unquestionable right to live in the UK. When your kid grows up, it can make the decision whether to trade in the right of abode certificate for a British passport (but it will lose the right to an Indian passport). There are no residency requirements or anything, Your kid never has to set foot in the UK again and will still be allowed to trade in the right of abode for a British passport.

You can also try and claim that the child involuntary acquired foreign nationality through its birth and therefore exercise a little know clause in the Indian passport acts which allows Dual Nationality untill the age of 18 when the child is an adult and must decide which nationality to retain.

Hi Badshah78,
Thanks for your post. I have been researching the options you have given me. It looks very much like the Indian government will not, under any circumstances, allow one to have an Indian passport and a foreign one.
I found an interesting link - mostly contributed to by US residents here.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travelbu ... ort-7.html

I think my child is entitled to the "Right of abode" sticker in her Indian passport and that might be just as good as a visa if not better.
http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/en/howtoapply ... ghtofabode

The other option as being advised by many of my friends is to go for a UK passport now as otherwise at the age of 18 automatically she will be forced to renounce either her UK or Indian citizenships as per Indian laws.

My worry about taking a UK passport for her is around what problems she may face in India if we were to end up living there long term as is the plan now.

She is not eligible for the OCI card as both her parents are Indian, so the only other options are PIO and visas and with PIO comes the requirement for registeration if the stay in India is longer than 6 months.
Also through the PIO route she can only regain her Indian citizenship if she is ordinarily resident in India for more than 7 years.

If anyone here has faced the same situations and if you can advise what the pros and cons are of each option are I would very thank full.

Thank you all.

The child is already British, whether or not he/she has a British passport does not change this.

I am in a similar situation as Mkumar. My baby is eligible for a british passport but I do not want to take one. I applied for an ilr for my baby using form set f. however from what i read from your passport the application will get rejected. I have a few questions which i am hoping you can answer
from your original date of application how long did it take for the application to get rejected
did home office refund you the application fee or did you lose the entire fee
I have flight tickets booked for next week and my application has now been with the home office since 7 weeks. I am not sure whether I should cancel my flight tickets or withdraw my application or wait for the rejection.
Please need your advice. Thanks in advance.

As previously stated, child may apply for a Certificate of entitlement to right of abode. Not SET(F) nor settlement visa.

So should I withdraw the application and lose the application fee. Or do I wait for the visa to be rejected and hope to get the application fee back.

If child is refused, then application fee may be lost. Ask if you can vary the application to the correct one.