British passports for children born in the UK

Dorota · Post by **Dorota** » Sun Jun 16, 2019 5:32 pm

Hello,
I am Polish national and have been living in the UK for the past 15 years. My two children (age 8 and 12) were born in the UK.
How can I get British passports for them? Do I need to apply for British nationality first or I can get it automatically if the child is 10 years old?
Thank you for all replies.

zimba · Post by **zimba** » Sun Jun 16, 2019 7:21 pm

Children born in the UK acquire the nationality of their parents UNLESS at the time of birth one of the parents had UK settled status or was already a British citizen. Do you or your partner have settled status in the UK ? If yes did you hold such status before or after the birth of your children ?

secret.simon · Post by **secret.simon** » Sun Jun 16, 2019 10:01 pm

The elder child cannot have been born a British citizen as they were born within five years of you moving to the UK. You would only have acquired PR after five years of continuous residence in the UK. So, the elder child will need to be registered as a British citizen before applying for a British passport.

Dorota wrote: ↑
Sun Jun 16, 2019 5:32 pm
Do I need to apply for British nationality first or I can get it automatically if the child is 10 years old?

The only time that British citizenship is acquired automatically is at birth. Acquisition at any time after birth requires registration and is not automatic.

If the child was born in the UK and lived for the first ten years of its life in the UK with absences of no more than 90 days in each year, then they can be registered on Form T.

As for the younger child, did you exercise treaty rights continuously for the first five years of your residence in the UK AND meet all the requirements for WRS registration in those five years?

If you did, then the second child will have automatically been a British citizen by birth because you would have acquired PR automatically.

If you did not (and many people did not keep records of their WRS current), then the second child would also need to be registered as a British citizen.

Zimba wrote: ↑
Sun Jun 16, 2019 7:21 pm
Children born in the UK acquire the nationality of their parents

Just to clarify that that depends on the nationality laws of the nationalities concerned. For instance, children born to Indian and Australian parents in the UK do NOT inherit their parents' nationality unless registered with their country's diplomatic mission, while children of parents from most Middle-Eastern countries only inherit citizenship from their father.

So, the statement above is not a blanket statement.

zimba · Post by **zimba** » Mon Jun 17, 2019 12:42 am

secret.simon wrote: ↑
Sun Jun 16, 2019 10:01 pm
Just to clarify that that depends on the nationality laws of the nationalities concerned. For instance, children born to Indian and Australian parents in the UK do NOT inherit their parents' nationality unless registered with their country's diplomatic mission, while children of parents from most Middle-Eastern countries only inherit citizenship from their father.

I was trying to say that they do NOT become British citizens by the virtue of being born in the UK and often end up adopting the nationality of their parent(s) in most cases, so my statement was very generic.

Immigrationboards.com: Immigration, work visa and work permit discussion board

British passports for children born in the UK

British passports for children born in the UK

Re: British passports for children born in the UK

Re: British passports for children born in the UK

Re: British passports for children born in the UK