uk passport???

[lillaura83]

hi everyone,
i am interested in applying for a british passport. my father was born in london england and served in the royal airforce for 12yrs. he became a canadian citizen just before i was born and he was and still is legally married to my mother. he was born in 1937 and i was born in canada in 1983. do i qualify for a british passport? And how much does it cost in cnd dollars to get one?

[Dawie]

The first thing to realise is that before you can obtain a British passport, you have to be a British citizen.

You state that your father became a Canadian citizen just before you were born...is he still a British citizen or did he renounce his British citizenship when he became a Canadian citizen?

If he is still a British citizen then you most certainly are a British citizen too by descent.

[Christophe]

It is unlikely that he would have renounced his British citizenship, because there would have been no requirement to have done so from either the British or the Canadian point of view. It is, of course, possible that he chose to do so, either when he became a Canadian citizen or subsequently, but to do so he would have had to fill in the prescribed forms (and pay the prescribed fee).

lillaura, he did not lose his British citizenship merely by becoming a Canadian citizen, and it makes no difference whether or not he now has a valid British passport - I say that only because some people think that it does. On the basis of the information you give, you are almost certainly a British citizen by descent, and you can simply apply for a British passport if you want to (i.e. you don't need to be registered or anything like that).

[lillaura83]

well thank you guys so much. this forum is really informative and heplful. i know my dad didn't renounce his british citizenship because he's collecting a pension from the uk still. so lets say i'm a uk citizen what does that mean for me? what options can i excerise in the uk?
thanks for all the intel on this.

[sakura]

well thank you guys so much. this forum is really informative and heplful. i know my dad didn't renounce his british citizenship because he's collecting a pension from the uk still. so lets say i'm a uk citizen what does that mean for me? what options can i excerise in the uk?
thanks for all the intel on this.

Well, you can work freely in the UK and any other country in the EEA (unless they have specific restrictions) without a visa or work permit. You can bring over a spouse/partner for settlement purposes. You can probably take out loans or a mortgage. You can work for the UK government in restricted jobs. Any of your children born here will be British automatically.

But,
You cannot study here immediately as a 'home' student for fees purposes at college/uni...that is, even though you (will) have a British passport, you can't simply come to do a BA or PhD and be given the 'cheaper' EEA tuition fees. You will still, for now, be considered an international student. Why? Because there's a requirement that states you must be 'ordinarily' resident in the UK for 3 years before the start date of your course.

Since you haven't even stepped foot in the UK (to live, anyway) of course you can't be considered to be 'ordinarily' resident here. For more information, if you were planning on studying this year or the next, maybe search some university websites for more on this. And just so you don't get the hump about it (some people think immigration rules are out to discriminate against them explicitly), all other British Citizens who live in, say, Australia, for their whole lives will also come across this rule.

After 3 years then you'll qualify for home fees. I don't know the rules elsewhere...in France education is dead cheap so if you speak French and want to study asap just go there.

And, just so you know, it is qualify for British Citizenship, before qualifying for a British passport. Or...you need the BC before you can get the BP! Just teasing.

Hope this helps.

[lillaura83]

wow lots of great oppurtunities!!! so if my father is a british citizen i'm not a citizen by decent? i'm hearing so many different things about that. and if i need to apply for a citizenship how do i go about that? how's the weather in the uk today?

[Christophe]

wow lots of great oppurtunities!!! so if my father is a british citizen i'm not a citizen by decent? i'm hearing so many different things about that. and if i need to apply for a citizenship how do i go about that? how's the weather in the uk today?

No, if your father was a British citizen by virtue of being born in the UK, then you are a British citizen by descent. (The only difference between the two statuses is that the children of a British citizen by descent are not automatically British citizens if born outside the UK - although they might be able to be registered as such depending on the circumstances - whereas the children of a British citizen otherwise by descent (e.g. your father) are British citizens (by descent) if born outside the UK (e.g. you). British citizens by descent are still full British citizens.)

On the basis of what you have posted, you do not need to apply for citizenship in any way, since you are already a British citizen, albeit one who has never acted on that citizenship. You can apply for a British passport. If you're in Canada, you need to apply via the British High Commission in Ottawa - you can find their pages about British passport applications and the documents etc needed to apply here. Allow plenty of time for the gathering of the required documents and information.

[lillaura83]

thank you christophe,
i will apply. i have my dads birth certificate and my parents marrige licence. do i need to send my dads old passport,my dads canadian citizenship or my moms birth certificate and passport? thanks for all the advice and information.

[Christophe]

thank you christophe,
i will apply. i have my dads birth certificate and my parents marrige licence. do i need to send my dads old passport,my dads canadian citizenship or my moms birth certificate and passport? thanks for all the advice and information.

I would follow the advice on the High Commission website in the notes accompanying Form C1 (for first-time applicants), which can be downloaded from this page.