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Hello.
My question is about my daughter gaining her British citizenship/nationality from me.
I am her adopted Mum and she was born to me and my girlfriend in Belgium.
I have asked and was told that because I wasn't living in the UK at the time of adoption, she cannot inherit my citizenship/nationality.
Is this true ?
This was upsetting because I had always believed I could pass it on.
We are moving to the UK soon, and this is why the issue has come to light.
Is there any other way that my daughter can inherit my citizenship/nationality once she lives in the UK ? Or will she be just another EU citizen and would need to apply for pre settles status like her Mother will have to ?

Sorry for the complicated questions, but I am still rather taken aback and I hope I have been misinformed.
Many thanks.

How did you acquire British citizenship? Have you lived in the UK for any three continuous years of your life?

The general rule for British nationality is that the only time that it is acquired automatically is at birth. Acquisition at any time after birth normally requires a separate registration process.

British nationality law is generally very restictive on British citizenship being passed on to children born outside the UK. The general rule is that it can be passed only for only one generation outside the UK. If you are a British citizen by descent, then you can't generally pass on your British citizenship automatically to your child born abroad.

Hello.

Yes, I was born ik the UK to British parents and Grandparents - a British ancestry that can be traced back hundreds of years actually.
I worked in the UK until I was 31, and then moved to Belgium and lived here until now.
I gained Belgian nationality around 2010.
I never renounced my British Nationality.

I understood that I could pass it on to my adopted daughter, but I have been informed that because I wasn't resident in the UK at the time of adoption that I can't.

I find this difficult to accept because I am officially her mother by a full adoption, I was living with the biological mother before conception, and I am still a British citizen.
I always thought I could, and on a recent visit to the UK I enquired at the local CAB and they said I could.

So I was wondering that if this is true, and I would be disappointed and shocked if it is, is there another way to pass it on ?

Many thanks.

Pingle wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 18, 2019 9:47 am

she was born to me and my girlfriend in Belgium

Are you named on the birth certificate as a parent?

Was the child adopted by an order from a Belgian court? The result would have been different if adoption was processed under an UK court.

The requirement for the adopter to be "habitually resident in the UK" is a requirement of the law.

Section 1 of the British Nationality Act 1981 wrote:(5)Where—
(a)...
(b)a minor who is not a British citizen is adopted under a Convention adoption,
that minor shall, if the requirements of subsection (5A) are met, be a British citizen as from the date on which the order is made or the Convention adoption is effected, as the case may be effected under the law of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom.

(5A)Those requirements are that on the date on which the order is made or the Convention adoption is effected (as the case may be)—
(a)the adopter or, in the case of a joint adoption, one of the adopters is a British citizen; and
(b)in a case within subsection (5)(b), the adopter or, in the case of a joint adoption, both of the adopters are habitually resident in the United Kingdom or in a designated territory.

In any case, you should be able to register your child as a British citizen using Form MN1 under Section 3(1). Also see Registration of children as British citizens guidance from Page 19 onwards.

Hello.
I was not named on the birth certificate, even though I presented myself when registering her, because same sex parents were not widely recognised back in 2005.

She was adopted officially via a Belgian court.

So, it is true that she will not automatically inherit my nationality because I wasn’t ‘habitually resident’ in the UK either at the time of her birth or adoption.

Ok, thank you for confirming that.

I will look into what that form MN1 and see what I need to do when we have moved back.
Many thanks for your time and input.

I have just had a read through that document, and it refers to ‘mother and father’. In order to fill this form in correctly and not to break any laws or impede on any application, where do i as second female adoptive mother write my details ?
By the mother or father section ?
Many thanks

I believe as "father". "Mother" is defined as the woman who gave birth. You would then want to clarify the situation in the "additional details" section later on in the form.

Section 50 (Interpretation) of the British Nationality Act 1981 wrote:(9)For the purposes of this Act a child’s mother is the woman who gives birth to the child.

On many forms, it is now updated as "Parent 1" and "Parent 2", but they have obviously not got around to this form.

Many thanks for that.
I will start this all once I have an address in the UK.
My wife (EU national) will be moving to the UK too and will apply for pre settled status, but by the time we will be divorced.
We will be co parenting and will still be friends so there won’t be any difficulties there.
Many thanks