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A friend of mine has a child under 16 years old.

The child born in the United Kingdom between 2/10/2000 and 30 April 2006 to an EEA national father and non-EEA mother. The child’s father is in the UK 20 years (working full time over 10 years), but hehad never gone through legal routesof documents, such as RP, PR etc. The child mother is in the UK 7 years (just recently got Permanent Residence).

My friend wants to know if his daughter has ‘Automatic acquisition of British citizenship’ or he needs to apply for child registration for her. I’m grateful to anybody that can answer to help my friend.

Between 2000 and 2006, EEA nationals were not seen as "settled" in the UK unless they have applied and granted ILR/PR. From 2006, this status is granted automatically after 5 years of exercising treaty rights.

So - if the EEA national never applied for ILR/PR, his child born between 2000 and 2006 is not considered British. The child is entitled to apply to register as British.

If child's father had been in the UK for at least 5 years prior to child's birth, then child may be British. Else, registration required.

Thanks vinny. I wasn't familiar with the Lassal ruling.

I suggest you follow the advice in the thread vinny provided.

To Jambo & vinny
Thank you very much for your responds! There is useful information. My friend will definitely go for ‘Confirmation of British nationality status’ for his daughter, as vinny suggested.

Worth calling IPS and ask to speak with the nationality team there. If they are familiar with the Lassal ruling and agree that the parent has obtained PR status, then he can save the application to the HO (and save the £86 fee) and apply directly for a passport (in any case, worth attaching a cover letter explaining the application is based on the Lassal ruling).

Need to use form NS to get an official Home Office confirmation of British citizenship, if this is valid.

Passports are sometimes issued by mistake, hence a British passport on its own is not conclusive evidence of citizenship.