Irish citizenship for baby born in Northern Ireland

[ravi_ei]

Hi All,

I and my wife live in Northern Ireland and we both recently received British Citizenship. I have a question about Irish citizenship about our to be born baby in near future. As we are now British citizen I want to know if our baby will by default eligible for Irish citizenship or we as a couple still have to prove that we have lived in Northern Ireland for 3 years in last 4 years from the date baby is born.

If someone could shed some light on this it will be very helpful.

Regards
Ravi

[BrexitEscapee]

I want to know if our baby will by default eligible for Irish citizenship or we as a couple still have to prove that we have lived in Northern Ireland for 3 years in last 4 years from the date baby is born.

You've obviously heard about the Good Friday agreement giving anyone born in Northern Ireland the right to choose to be either Irish, British or both. This will apply to any of your future offspring, however I have read about a controversy about dual nationality for Northern Irish people:

(This is about the rights of non-UK family to join them in the UK, so is unlikely to be an issue for your kids.) The UK Government made a change earlier in the year which would mean that if your offspring chose dual UK/Irish nationality, they won't have the same rights as an 'EEA National.' Basically, they wouldn't be able to take advantage of post-Brexit arrangements for their non-EU family to join them in the UK - unless they renounced their British citizenship. Bizarrely, this only applies to people who have dual UK/Irish nationality through the Good Friday agreement - not other routes, such as FBR. It's complicated and I haven't read any news articles about,whether it has been, or will be, resolved. If you want to do some Googling on it, this is a good place to start:

https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk ... y/CBP-8571

[ravi_ei]

I want to know if our baby will by default eligible for Irish citizenship or we as a couple still have to prove that we have lived in Northern Ireland for 3 years in last 4 years from the date baby is born.

You've obviously heard about the Good Friday agreement giving anyone born in Northern Ireland the right to choose to be either Irish, British or both. This will apply to any of your future offspring, however I have read about a controversy about dual nationality for Northern Irish people:

(This is about the rights of non-UK family to join them in the UK, so is unlikely to be an issue for your kids.) The UK Government made a change earlier in the year which would mean that if your offspring chose dual UK/Irish nationality, they won't have the same rights as an 'EEA National.' Basically, they wouldn't be able to take advantage of post-Brexit arrangements for their non-EU family to join them in the UK - unless they renounced their British citizenship. Bizarrely, this only applies to people who have dual UK/Irish nationality through the Good Friday agreement - not other routes, such as FBR. It's complicated and I haven't read any news articles about,whether it has been, or will be, resolved. If you want to do some Googling on it, this is a good place to start:

https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk ... y/CBP-8571

So let's say for sake of argument my father-my offspring's grandfather want to join the baby with his Irish/British nationality in UK as non EU member of an EEA personnel then he(grandfather) wont be able to take advantage of this route. He(grandfather) has to come through the immigration route defined by UK government. Am I correct?

Or if baby chose to renounce British Citizenship then he(grandfather) can use the EEA family route.

[BrexitEscapee]

So let's say for sake of argument my father-my offspring's grandfather want to join the baby with his Irish/British nationality in UK as non EU member of an EEA personnel then he(grandfather) wont be able to take advantage of this route. He(grandfather) has to come through the immigration route defined by UK government. Am I correct?

Or if baby chose to renounce British Citizenship then he(grandfather) can use the EEA family route.

That's my understanding from what I read when this issue first hit the news around April this year. However, everything could change (or may have already changed) because this is all dependent upon Brexit, which is a rapidly-evolving disaster. I would recommend doing a Google search for more up-to-date information than mine. Also, I spotted there are some upcoming events in Northern Ireland where you might find people that have a better idea of how this is going to play out:

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/eu ... nformation

[ravi_ei]

So let's say for sake of argument my father-my offspring's grandfather want to join the baby with his Irish/British nationality in UK as non EU member of an EEA personnel then he(grandfather) wont be able to take advantage of this route. He(grandfather) has to come through the immigration route defined by UK government. Am I correct?

Or if baby chose to renounce British Citizenship then he(grandfather) can use the EEA family route.

That's my understanding from what I read when this issue first hit the news around April this year. However, everything could change (or may have already changed) because this is all dependent upon Brexit, which is a rapidly-evolving disaster. I would recommend doing a Google search for more up-to-date information than mine. Also, I spotted there are some upcoming events in Northern Ireland where you might find people that have a better idea of how this is going to play out:

https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/eu ... nformation

Thanks for your help. At least its clear that we can apply both British and Irish citizenship for our baby. I will keep a track on this in news as Brexit progresses.