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I have been living in London for the past eleven years, the first two years I was here as a working holidaymaker type visa (I'm South African). I returned home for six weeks, and then re-entered the country on a 6 month visitors visa, and have just stayed here ever since. My husband entered the country on a 6 months visitors visa also.

I am due to give birth to my first child soon. Will they automatically be British and entitled to a British Passport under these circumstances?

Thanks.

Sparx

sparx wrote:I have been living in London for the past eleven years, the first two years I was here as a working holidaymaker type visa (I'm South African). I returned home for six weeks, and then re-entered the country on a 6 month visitors visa, and have just stayed here ever since. My husband entered the country on a 6 months visitors visa also.

I am due to give birth to my first child soon. Will they automatically be British and entitled to a British Passport under these circumstances?

Thanks.

Sparx

If you and your husband are both overstayers (this is what I have inferred from your post when you say you came on 6 month visas and just stayed) then your child will be South African and will not automatically be British, neither will the child be entitled to a British passport.

However, if you have since received ILR then yes, child will be British.

To put it bluntly, if you and your husband originally entered on six-month visitor visas and have overstayed, then after the baby's birth all three of you (mother, father and baby) will be South African nationals staying illegally in the UK and liable to removal.

If you decide to regularise your stay in the UK through an economic route, you must go home to South Africa to do so, although your prolonged overstay in the UK may prove to be a challenge to getting such permission (see following link).

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... les/part9/

As the previous poster noted, if you do somehow manage to re-enter the UK on a Tier 1 or 2 visa, then after you become permanent residents/citizens in 6+ years (under the new regime coming into effect next year), your UK-born child will be entitled to register as a UK citizen.

Alternatively, if you do manage to stay under the radar for another ten years, your UK-born child will also be entitled to register as a UK citizen. But that doesn't do anything for you, really. And you need to consider the realities of being an overstayer for at least another decade.

This is a very complex situation, and you really should enlist the help of a trained and experienced solicitor.

http://www.oisc.gov.uk/people_seeking_i ... er_finder/
http://www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk/ ... ration.jsp

A long shot, but does either of you have any claim to any other EU/EEA citizenship? Any grandparents born in (Northern) Ireland?

sparx, do you appreciate that you are not eligible to use the NHS as regards the birth.

The latest quote I saw for maternity-related costs for visitors was about £3000.

I think sparx has been here for 11yrs now, so if worked and paid tax properly for all that time then morally can use NHS as already contributed enough

If the immigration system can let someone stay here and being able to work and pay Tax, NI contributions for 11yrs without correct papers/workpermit, then surely we need to punish the system and not the individual!

lboro, the length of time here is irrelevant. They entered on visitor visas, and indeed have overstayed those.

John wrote:lboro, the length of time here is irrelevant. They entered on visitor visas, and indeed have overstayed those.

I totally agree the length of time here is irrelevant but I was implying that if they worked and paid Tax, NI contribution for 11yrs then they have contributed a lot of money into the economy.