Child citizenship questions

[rkbalu31]

Hello Team,

I'm currently holding ILR and planning to apply Citizenship next year. My wife and daughter both are in family visa and due to apply extension by end of this year.

My daughter born outside of UK and been in UK continuously for last 8 years.

So, my question is that would there be an option to register my daughter citizenship without ILR/PR once I got mine and my wife is close to apply ILR under HO discretion?

Thanks!

[secret.simon]

Registration for children in your child's circumstances (born outside the UK to parents neither of whom were British citizens at the time of the child's birth) is already at discretion, under Section 3(1).

But discretion does not mean the absence of rules or requirements. It merely means that the Home Office can lay out the expectations of when that discretion will be exercised.

Currently, the expectations listed in the guidance are
(a) lived in the UK for 10 years lawfully (on any combination of visas, does not require ILR), or,
(b) at least one parent has or is applying for British citizenship, and both the other parent and the child have ILR.

You would need to give compelling compassionate reasons why a child not meeting these expectations should be registered as a British citizen if the conditions above are not met. And saving money is not a compelling compassionate reason.

So, to summarise, children in these circumstances do not have an entitlement to British citizenship anyway and meeting the requirements above is for the Home Office to exercise discretion.

[rkbalu31]

Thanks for the quick reply.

So, if i understand correctly, she can be eligible to apply for citizenship when:
1. She crosses 10 years and
2. I apply my citizenship in the meantime?

Please confirm.

Also, regarding her 10 year - Does it need to be continuous?

Below are her dates:

1st entry clearance date: 29th Mar 2014
left country: 29th Nov 2014
back to UK: 28th Mar 2015
left country: 08th May 2015
back to UK: 22nd Dec 2015

Since then she has been in UK continuously.

As you can see she is out of country couple of times and one time is more than 6 months.

Can I able to count her 10 year from 2014 onwards or from 22nd Dec 2015 onwards only?

Please advise and thanks!

[secret.simon]

I am not sure about precisely how the Home Office calculates the ten years. Some absences are allowed.

It is an application at discretion anyway, so you can request that the absences be factored in given that there does not seem to be any absences in the past 7-8 years.

But these are new provisions and the precise manner in which the absences are calculated is unclear.

[rkbalu31]

Thanks for your response.