My Step Daughter British Passport Application

[roman143]

Hello,

I am Dutch national and were practicing my European Treaty Rights at the time when my family came to UK. My wife and daughter came to UK 5 years ago. I got settled status in March 2020 and my daughter got settled status in 2021 when applying for pre-settlement status after Brexit. My daughter is eligible for passport now and here is are the facts and i need help

1: My daughter is not my biological daughter, she came from Pakistan with her mother.
2: I was working as software engineer but I started my own business since jan 2022, unfortunately my business (as of now) does not make enough as much as I was making when I was working as software engineer.

I need help in the following

1: I have to send her birth certificate, and obviously my name is not there as her biological father. In this case what documents I should be sending
2: I got my Indefinite leave to remain but did not apply for British Passport, So now do I still have to prove my living in UK as a worker status under EEA Treaty Rights ?

I will be really grateful for any help regarding this please. Thank you

[secret.simon]

Your step-daughter is not eligible for a British passport if she was born abroad.

Are you applying to register her as a British citizen on Form MN1?

If so, be aware that the expectation for such an application is for at least one parent to either be or apply to become a British citizen, while the other parent and child have settled status in the UK.

Alternatively, the child can register as a British citizen after having lived 10 years in the UK (provided she is still under the age of 18 at the time) or she can naturalise as an adult any time after the age of 18, like any other adult.

[roman143]

Thank you secret.simon for replying. Ok so in that case, I have not applied for British Passport and my wife is still not British National, she also has Settled Status and we are going to apply for her British Passport as she is eligible.

I did not apply via MN1 form, I simply searched and went on Gov.uk website and paid £54 fee as I thought she got settled status for over an year now and should be eligible to apply for passport, but I think it is only for those kids who are born in UK and parents are British according to you what you said.

[meself2]

Thank you secret.simon for replying. Ok so in that case, I have not applied for British Passport and my wife is still not British National, she also has Settled Status and we are going to apply for her British Passport as she is eligible.

I did not apply via MN1 form, I simply searched and went on Gov.uk website and paid £54 fee as I thought she got settled status for over an year now and should be eligible to apply for passport, but I think it is only for those kids who are born in UK and parents are British according to you what you said.

You and your wife are not eligible for British passport as well. You first have to naturalize via AN1.

[secret.simon]

Your step-daughter is not a British citizen and therefore not eligible for a British passport.

A key thing to remember about British nationality is that it is only automatically acquired at birth. Acquisition of British citizenship at any other time after birth requires either the person being issued a registration certificate or a naturalisation certificate.

Your step-daughter was not a British citizen at birth. In order to become a British citizen, she would need to meet the requirements for registering as a British citizen on Form MN1 (which also requires the parents to meet certain requirements), pay the requisite fees (~£1000+) and then wait for the registration certificate to be issued. Once she has got the registration certificate, then she can apply for a British passport.

Likewise your wife and you would need to naturalise on Form AN (as mentioned by @meself2 above) before applying for British passports.

[CR001]

Just a correction here, the OP as the step parent would NOT also have to naturalise for the child to be registered. Only the biological uk based parents needs to also apply for citizenship at the same time or before the child.

There is no concept of British citizenship for a child through a step parent if no formal and legal adoption took place.