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British citizenship for child born through surrogacy abroad
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:12 am
by YF1979
Hello,
We plan to extend our family through egg donation and surrogacy in the Ukraine, with me being the biological father. Both me and my wife hold British citizenship by naturalization. Could you please advise whether:
a) the new-born will be automatically considered a British citizen
b) what steps we need to follow (registration at the British consulate, online passport application) for the child to obtain its first British passport
c) how long the passport application process typically takes
Many thanks in advance.
Re: British citizenship for child born through surrogacy abroad
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 11:23 am
by alterhase58
Review this document,if not already seen:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... y-guidance
Not an expert on this though, just googled the link.
Re: British citizenship for child born through surrogacy abroad
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 6:51 pm
by Richard W
If the OP's wife will give birth to the child, then the child will be British.
Otherwise, by a recent judgement, the child may choose to have his biological father recognised as his father for the operation of British nationality law.
It will help matters if the child's birth certificate records the OP as the father. As I understand it, the process will be:
(1) Obtain birth certificate.
(2) Apply for the British passport from abroad.
(3) Await further instructions from the Passport Office - the Home Secretary may not immediately be satisfied as to the paternity of the child, and I'm not sure how the child goes about choosing its father. (It's simpler if the OP is the only candidate.)
In cases such as this, I'm not at all sure as to when the child becomes British, and how far it is back-dated.
Re: British citizenship for child born through surrogacy abroad
Posted: Tue Feb 04, 2020 10:13 pm
by secret.simon
Foreign and Commonwealth office: Surrogacy Overseas wrote:
Under UK nationality law, the mother and father of a child are considered to be the woman who carries and gives birth to the child and her husband, i.e the man she is married to at the time of the child’s conception. In some countries, where same-sex marriage or civil partnership is legal, this may refer to the birth mother of the child and her same-sex spouse at the time of the child’s conception.
This means that even if your names appear on the local birth certificate, a baby born to a foreign national surrogate mother who is married will not be automatically eligible for British nationality. In this case you will need to first apply for Home Office registration of a child under 18 as a British citizen, before applying for a passport for the child.
If the surrogate mother is single or widowed/divorced then you do not need to apply for registration of the child and you can apply for a passport if the commissioning father is British, has a genetic link to the child and is able to pass on his nationality (e.g. is a British national otherwise than by descent).
You can find further information on this in the
Home Office guidance. Please note: This guidance was created in 2009 and as matters continue to evolve some aspects of the guidance may now be out of date. If you have any questions you should seek advice from a specialist UK immigration lawyer.
...
Please note, it can take several weeks, if not months, to process applications for children born through surrogacy overseas and you should be prepared for an extended stay overseas once your child is born. The FCO does not handle passport applications and Embassies cannot expedite your application.
The FCO and Embassies are not ordinarily able to issue Emergency Travel Documents to children born through surrogacy overseas. The checks required
to determine nationality for children born through surrogacy must be carried out by Her Majesty’s Passport Office (as part of the passport application process) or UK Visas and immigration (as part of the nationality registration process).
Also see
Surrogacy: legal rights of parents and surrogates
As a British citizen by naturalisation, you are a British citizen otherwise than by descent and can pass on your British citizenship to one generation born outside the UK. Be aware that the child will not be able to pass on British citizenship automatically to any of their own children born outside the UK.
Re: British citizenship for child born through surrogacy abroad
Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2020 4:18 pm
by YF1979
Thank you all for your responses, I am also speaking to an immigration lawyer and it seems it should not be a problem for us to apply for a British passport for the new-born (without having to register the birth with the local British consulate first).
Re: British citizenship for child born through surrogacy abroad
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2020 1:03 pm
by Richard W
YF1979 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2020 4:18 pm
Thank you all for your responses, I am also speaking to an immigration lawyer and it seems it should not be a problem for us to apply for a British passport for the new-born (without having to register the birth with the local British consulate first).
Did they understand the issues over paternity for the purposes of nationality law? If there's someone ahead of you on the list, then it seems that ignoring your claim would still be lawful, merely in breach of your child's human rights. The original judgement was discussed at
british-citizenship/revoked-child-s-bri ... 71-20.html; the law report is at
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Adm ... /1834.html.