Citizenship by Descent Questions

Afternoon, All!

New here and stunned by the wealth of info available. Thank you for being here and providing a valuable resource!

My questions pertain to citizenship by descent. I have done some research on it, and my husband seems to qualify. He was born in the US, and his father was born in the UK while the family was stationed there by the US military (military brat.) My research seems to indicate that all we need to apply for hubby's British passport is his birth certificate, his US passport, his father's long form birth certificate demonstrating birth in the UK, and his parents' marriage certificate.

Is it really this easy?

Also, the British Embassy site says we need a copy of the marriage certificate. The county in which the marriage is registered offers both Licenses and Certificates, does anyone know if there is any difference for these purposes?

Thanks in advance!

Sounds right to me, Reannon...

As I understand it, the license is the "clearance" to get married, and the certificate is the evidence that the deed was done, and the marriage was registered. So it'll be the certificate that's needed. A possible fly in the ointment is that if either of your husband's parents were previously married (which should show up on the marriage certificate) it will also be necessary to produce evidence of termination of the previous marriage(s) of either party.

One more thing; this all changes if your father-in-law's father was on the US Embassy staff, rather than simply being posted to one of the US bases in the UK. Children born to diplomatic fathers didn't get British nationality by birth here.

To add to Pauls comment on embassy staff having diplomatic status I believe the same applies to those exempt from immigration control under Visiting Forces status to include NATO personel.

Kayalami wrote:To add to Pauls comment on embassy staff having diplomatic status I believe the same applies to those exempt from immigration control under Visiting Forces status to include NATO personel.

Exemption from immigration control and diplomatic status are not the same thing. And while from 1.1.83 visiting forces are specifically excluded from the definition of "settled" for nationality purposes, this legislation does not apply to those born before 1983.

As I understand it there is no ambiguity about the status of those born in the UK to visiting forces personnel before 1983 - they are British citizens.

I sincerely hope that this proves to be academic, because although I am aware that proviso (a) to section 4 of the British Nationality Act 1948 was amended by the Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964 - and that Orders in Council may also have been made under a couple of other Acts, bringing certain categories of people within the ambit of proviso (a) - I have no intention of doing the research necessary to establish who is right on the principle!

The practice is that something called "The Sheriff's List" rules. I don't know whether it still is still published (because it has had no nationality application since 1983) but it was/is published in the London Gazette, and constitutes the definitive list of individuals who have diplomatic immunity, or a form of it.

ppron747 wrote:I sincerely hope that this proves to be academic, because although I am aware that proviso (a) to section 4 of the British Nationality Act 1948 was amended by the Diplomatic Privileges Act 1964 - and that Orders in Council may also have been made under a couple of other Acts, bringing certain categories of people within the ambit of proviso (a) - I have no intention of doing the research necessary to establish who is right on the principle!

The document in the Nationality Instructions on diplomats makes no mention that visiting forces children pre-1983 should not be British citizens.
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/docume ... iew=Binary (pdf)

In fact it states in section 4.3 that: Persons entitled to immunities under the 1964 Act are listed in paragraph 4.1.a-d above, ie not including visiting forces who fall under section 4.1g.

Therefore, as visiting forces are not generally covered by diplomatic immunity, it is reasonable to assert that any child born in the United Kingdom before 1983 to visiting forces is a British citizen.

And in the light of the British Overseas Territories Act 2002, the same would apply to children of visiting forces born in other territories before 1983, such as Bermuda.

After a flurry of consultation, we have determined the military personage in question to be safely in the realm of "grunts." (a firefighter to be exact) so no diplomatic questions should muddy the situation.

But it's interesting, as I had never seen the diplomatic question raised on other forums or websites where I had previously done research. I understand that it is probably a fairly rarified situation, but still...

Thanks much for the impressively thorough answers!

All the best, Reannan - and make sure hubby is sitting down when he looks at the fee for a passport....
It's also worth mentioning that I gather the Embassy in Washington gets very busy in the run-up to Christmas, so the quicker he applies, the better.