Applying for children's UK citizenship

[confused321]

Hi,

My question is about applying for our Dutch born children's UK citizenship. They are 8 and 11 years old. We moved to UK in 2014 and all their education has been in UK since the beginning. We are all Dutch citizens having Settled status in UK.

To keep the cost of applying for citizenship low I was wondering if:

Option 1: We apply only for their citizenships without applying for ours? or does at least one parent has to apply together with them, otherwise their application can get refused?

Option 2: Only one parent apply for his/her citizenship. After becoming citizen, both children will automatically be considered UK citizens and they can then directly apply for the passport only?


Thanks.

[vinny]

Children are not automatically British. For registrations subject to discretion under Section 3(1), they also expect at least one parent to be British or applying for Naturalisation.

[confused321]

We moved to UK in 2014

Sorry it was actually 2012

[secret.simon]

Vinny's advice above still stands, no matter when you moved to the UK.

For the children to acquire British citizenship, the children and at least one parent need to apply for British citizenship at the same time.

Alternatively, one parent can apply for British citizenship, and once the parent has become a British citizen (i.e. after the citizenship ceremony), the children can apply to register as British citizens.

But there is no automatic acquisition of British citizenship after birth. The only time British citizenship is automatically acquired is if certain conditions are met on the date of birth.

[confused321]

For the children to acquire British citizenship, the children and at least one parent need to apply for British citizenship at the same time.

Alternatively, one parent can apply for British citizenship, and once the parent has become a British citizen (i.e. after the citizenship ceremony), the children can apply to register as British citizens.

It seems that both are basically the same thing and will also cost the same amount. The only difference is that in second alternative above, children's citizenship will get delayed if we apply later instead of applying at the same time.

[secret.simon]

It seems that both are basically the same thing and will also cost the same amount. The only difference is that in second alternative above, children's citizenship will get delayed if we apply later instead of applying at the same time.

Correct. The costs will be the same or possibly even higher, if the costs go up in the future. At times in the past, immigration application costs have been known to go up 25% year on year.

[confused321]

Cost of citizenship is already too much, probably higher than all the rest of the countries in the world. I guess, this is probably UK's one of the main sources of income.

Children's high citizenship fee was recently confirmed unlawful by the court. Is it coming down any time soon to £372? Those who apply now (i.e. after that judgement) will get the additional amount reimbursed later when the govt adjusts it?

[secret.simon]

this is probably UK's one of the main sources of income.

Probably one of the Home Office's main sources of income. The current government's approach has been that the cost of the entire immigration system (border enforcement, etc) should be borne by immigrants, as opposed to just the cost of processing the applications themselves. That is of course their approach in other areas of government expenditure as well (eg a user-pays approach to transport rather than funding it from general taxation, etc).

You have no idea of how much effort and cost you have been saved by being EEA citizens. A family of four non-EEA citizens in the same situation as yours would have forked out upwards of £10,000 just for ILR (the non-EEA equivalent of your Settled Status), before applying for citizenship. And over the years, the repeat immigration applications would have been another £20,000-30,000 approximately.

Children's high citizenship fee was recently confirmed unlawful by the court. Is it coming down any time soon to £372?

That judgment has been appealed.

Those who apply now (i.e. after that judgement) will get the additional amount reimbursed later when the govt adjusts it?

Unlikely.

[confused321]

One last question, if the parent's citizenship application gets refused or delayed for some reason, would they still consider/approve children's applications separately (even when applied together) or will they just refuse them too?

[secret.simon]

One last question, if the parent's citizenship application gets refused or delayed for some reason, would they still consider/approve children's applications separately or will just refuse them too?

They are normally linked.

It used to be the case that the children's registration certificates would only be handed over along with the parent's naturalisation certificate after the citizenship ceremony, even though the children don't need to attend or participate in the citizenship ceremony.

So, if the parent did not attend their citizenship ceremony, they would not get the children's registration certificates either.

But I am not sure if that is the case post-Covid, as some users have reported getting the children's citizenship certificates in the post independently.