British Citizenship to a Child born in UK to EEA mother

Hi. I am married to a French national, and we had a baby boy last week and wanted to know if he can get a British Passport ? I am a non EEA national, here on a EEA family permit ( 5 year ) and my wife is a French national. I checked UKBA and it said if parents are settled, the child is eligible for a British Passport. Though I am on a 5 year residence card, my wife is pretty much settled here, can we apply for a British Passport for our son ?

If she had PR when child was born, then child is British.

She has been here for almost 6 years now, so definitely she is eligible for PR but she doesnt have a permanent residence card they issure for EEA nationals ( EEA3 ). she has a residence card ( EEA1 ) as she got it when we applied for my EEA family permit. I guess since she has been here more than 5 years and is eligible for a PR, if we send the proof of the past 5 years along with the PP form for my son, it should help ?

Yes.

phoned the Passport helpline to ask what proof we send as my wife was studying in between for a year. The lady on the phone asked if my wife claimed any benefits during her study and my wife said she didnt claim any benefits but did get a student loan from the government. On this she said it will be difficult to get a British Passport for your child as you did get something from the government during the past five years. Is she correct ? My wife cant show she is been exercising her rights in UK and has a PR status if she is been working 5 out of the last 6 years and has her P60 and one year she studied, did her masters, she got a student loan and she is been repaying that every month now from her salary.

dhruv45in wrote:phoned the Passport helpline to ask what proof we send as my wife was studying in between for a year. The lady on the phone asked if my wife claimed any benefits during her study and my wife said she didnt claim any benefits but did get a student loan from the government. On this she said it will be difficult to get a British Passport for your child as you did get something from the government during the past five years. Is she correct ? My wife cant show she is been exercising her rights in UK and has a PR status if she is been working 5 out of the last 6 years and has her P60 and one year she studied, did her masters, she got a student loan and she is been repaying that every month now from her salary.

Go and look at the EEA route forum. I suspect the advice given on the phone was not correct.

I suggest that your wife applies for Permanent Residence under the EEA route. PR is free. Once she has demonstrated PR and has the certificate she will be able to prove she is settled. The PR application should be decided within a month.

Yes i think she was given the wrong info on the phone. We could apply for a EEA3 but then this beats the purpose as we could have applied for a french PP but couldnt get an appointment before may n wanted to travel. And also if we get her a PR card wont that be after the child was born n we would need to fill MN1? We are thinking of applying as it is with sending them 4 P60 and univerdity details for the year she studied.

It seems that it is a normal procedure for IPS customer enquiries to ask EEA nationals if they have claimed benefits in the 5 years. Any answer other than "No" results in a "you are probably not eligible" advice. However, it is not such a clear cut. EEA national are entitled to claim some benefits and it should not affect obtaining PR status.

If she worked for 5 years and got 5 P60s to prove that, I would suggest a postal passport application with the 5 P60s + a short cover letter explaining she has obtain PR prior to the child birth as a worker for 5 years. I would leave the 1 student year out as it would just complicate things. There is no need to use the 5 years immediately before the birth. Any continuous 5 years before the birth should be enough.

Passport applications for children take 2-3 weeks.

thanks for the reply. She has been in UK since 6 years, got 4 P60s and 1 year study and 1 P60 ( for 2011-12 ) she will get this April. So you suggest i wait till we get P60 for the current year and then send 5 P60s with the postal application. Wont the study year ( 2009-10 ) look a bit strange in between ?

I thought she worked for 5 years and then went to university. I should have been clearer in my post - the 5 years need to be continuous.

To be able to exercise treaty rights as a student (in her 5th year in the UK), she would need to have held a medical insurance (Comprehensive Sickness Insurance) for that period. Did she had such insurance during her studies?

Alternatively -

* Did she apply for EEA1 as a student?
* Did she work during her studies?

she came to UK in 2006, worked for 3 years and then did her masters in 2009-2010 and is working as a teacher since Sep 2010. She applied for her EEA1 in Dec 2010 when i applied for my EEA2 Family permit. So she does have a EEA1 but thats after she was a student. And no she didnt have any insurance or worked while she was studying.

Any chance she had EHIC (European Health Card) from France to cover her student years?

If not, then it seems that she won't be able to count the student years for PR and in that case, the child would not be British from birth.

I would suggest she follow EUsmileWEallsmile's advice and apply for PR using EEA3 using evidence of 5 years before the child birth. If the HO agrees she has obtained PR, use that and the same evidence when applying for a passport. However, I suspect the HO will ask for CSI for her student years.

Getting a French passport might be the quickest way forward.

hhmm.. thanks for the reply. She didnt have a EHIC card, so i think applying for a French PP will be the right thing. But still I do want to send all this evidence and apply for a British PP and see what happens, coz when we phoned IPS nobody asked anything about CSI or any medical insurance. Also i saw in the other post you said EEA1 issued before June 2011 were okay as HO were exempting them from this new CSI rule ?

EEA1 issued before 2011 as a student exempts from CSI. Not any EEA1.

Looking at IPS own guidelines for handing EEA children applications, it seems that they are not stating CSI as a requirement for students (just self-sufficient), so the application might be successful (they have been cases in the past that British passports were issued by error).

dhruv45in wrote:Yes i think she was given the wrong info on the phone. We could apply for a EEA3 but then this beats the purpose as we could have applied for a french PP but couldnt get an appointment before may n wanted to travel. And also if we get her a PR card wont that be after the child was born n we would need to fill MN1? We are thinking of applying as it is with sending them 4 P60 and univerdity details for the year she studied.

The advantage with applying for PR first is that it would flush out any issues with the application. You should have a card within three weeks. Once you have the card, it's another couple of weeks for the passport.

For the French option, what's the timeline post appointment?

There is no reason why a French passport cannot be applied for now if the child is eligible for one. If/when he is eligible for a British passport, there is no reason why he cannot have both passports.

dhruv45in wrote:she came to UK in 2006, worked for 3 years and then did her masters in 2009-2010 and is working as a teacher since Sep 2010. She applied for her EEA1 in Dec 2010 when i applied for my EEA2 Family permit. So she does have a EEA1 but thats after she was a student. And no she didnt have any insurance or worked while she was studying.

Did she apply for EEA1 on the basis of being a student? If yes, she most likely has PR. If not, although she still may have PR, it may be more difficult to demonstrate.

Christophe wrote:There is no reason why a French passport cannot be applied for now if the child is eligible for one. If/when he is eligible for a British passport, there is no reason why he cannot have both passports.

I think the issue is that the OP is trying to get a passport ASAP.

dhruv45in wrote:hhmm.. thanks for the reply. She didnt have a EHIC card, so i think applying for a French PP will be the right thing. But still I do want to send all this evidence and apply for a British PP and see what happens, coz when we phoned IPS nobody asked anything about CSI or any medical insurance. Also i saw in the other post you said EEA1 issued before June 2011 were okay as HO were exempting them from this new CSI rule ?

For what purpose did your wife leave work and go study? Was she made redundant? Did she want to advance her knowledge in her field? These may be relevant reasons for her to have maintained her status under the regulations.

While I know the OP's question is related to a passport for a child, it is really about demonstrating PR for a French national in the first instance. Crack that and the child's passport will be straightforward.

Thanks Gurus for the replies. The timeline after applying for a French PP is 3-4 weeks. I have got an appointment for 29th May so it wont be before end of June that we will get a French Passport for him.
My wife was an assistant teacher for a couple of years before she decided to do her PG in Education so that she can be a teacher, and now she is working as a full time teacher in London. And when she applied for her EEA1 and my EEA2 she had just finished her studies and started working ( she finished university in July 2010 and started working in Sep 2010 and applied for her EEA1 in Dec 2010. So i guess she applied for EEA1 on the basis of her new permanent job as a teacher after her studies. She is been in UK since 2006.

dhruv45in wrote:Thanks Gurus for the replies. The timeline after applying for a French PP is 3-4 weeks. I have got an appointment for 29th May so it wont be before end of June that we will get a French Passport for him.
My wife was an assistant teacher for a couple of years before she decided to do her PG in Education so that she can be a teacher, and now she is working as a full time teacher in London. And when she applied for her EEA1 and my EEA2 she had just finished her studies and started working ( she finished university in July 2010 and started working in Sep 2010 and applied for her EEA1 in Dec 2010. So i guess she applied for EEA1 on the basis of her new permanent job as a teacher after her studies. She is been in UK since 2006.

Ok, that's very helpful. A person who has worked for more than a year, can voluntarily leave their job and still be considered a worker if they embark on vocational training. To me, from what you've posted above she could successfully argue that her studies were for the purposes of advancing the vocation she had chosen, ie teaching.

I would recommend that at some point your wife applies for PR. It may help you in the future.

Great, thanks ! is that somewhere in writing ? so that if they refuse us the PP or anything, we can argue on that basis

EUsmileWEallsmile wrote:I would recommend that at some point your wife applies for PR. It may help you in the future.

yes you are right, actually she is eligible for a British PP as well as her mother is british and she was born before the law changed ( 1982) so she can apply for a British PP for herself, which we should have done before