Pros and Cons of British Citizenship

[aspirant09]

Hi,
I ( and family) are on ILR and due to apply British Citizenship shortly. I have always had this dilema about how far untill I want to live in Britian.
I come from India so going back always has its own charms!

My question this time is what are the Pros and Cons of acquiring BC.As far as I know the europe wide travel and work is a definite plus but then wanted to understand if there would be few things we might be missing on.
Now, I accept that the list below might be a bit too much in detail but really think that we should cover as much as possible.

I am stating this list and would request other members to add/edit items below based on their know how:

Pros:
1) Europe wide travel without any visa ( schegen states etc)
2) Europe wide work authoirization (except Swiss? )
3) Eligibility to get Security clearance ( required by some defence companies)
4) Leisure Travel to USA but no work authorization.
5) May be Prefered treatment while/if applying for any USA work visa?
6) Can get visiting or family Visa for Parents to visit UK anytime they want i.e without applying for visa everytime?



Cons:
1) Need visa for traveling to India? Guess you can get OCI card and that would be enough for travel without Visa to India?
2) If ever you want to go back to India forever, how easy is it to give up BC and get Indian Nationality?
3) If you chose to educate your child in any Indian School/college/university, you would be expected to pay NRI fees.
4) Can't apply to any Indian jobs? If yes, how would the Tax system work for you?
5) Can't contest in any Indian Elections? ( not that everyone wants to, but just covering the point!)
6) Can't apply to any Public service examinations or Indian Government job?
7) Can you buy house in India or would you have to pay extra tax as you'll be treated as a foreign investor?
8.) If applicable- You might have to sell off all your existing Indian equity investments before you get BC? What about PPF,LIC etc?

[InUkOnHsmp]

I had the exact same questions sometime back, here is the thread:

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=97826

Here are the answers as I know them:

6) Can get visiting or family Visa for Parents to visit UK anytime they want i.e without applying for visa everytime?

Really? I have never heard of this, other senior members?

1) Need visa for traveling to India? Guess you can get OCI card and that would be enough for travel without Visa to India?

Yes.

2) If ever you want to go back to India forever, how easy is it to give up BC and get Indian Nationality?

Need to be living in India for 5 years, and previous 12 months continuously. If yes you can renounce BC and become Indian again. This is not valid for children, they cannot renounce BC till they are 18.

3) If you chose to educate your child in any Indian School/college/university, you would be expected to pay NRI fees.

On my enquiries in India, I found schools were less concerned about this, and may be ok with the kids being British. For college however, in Pune at least they will have to go through the Pune university, have a 15% quota and be charged 5 times the normal fees.

4) Can't apply to any Indian jobs? If yes, how would the Tax system work for you?

Not true, taxation is on residence not nationality.

5) Can't contest in any Indian Elections? ( not that everyone wants to, but just covering the point!)

Yep, cant do that.

6) Can't apply to any Public service examinations or Indian Government job?

Not sure.

7) Can you buy house in India or would you have to pay extra tax as you'll be treated as a foreign investor?

Dont see why, most likely not.

8.) If applicable- You might have to sell off all your existing Indian equity investments before you get BC? What about PPF,LIC etc?

I really like these financial questions in your post, as it will be equally relevant for us, and I never quite thought about these. So thanks for bringing these up, maybe oter experts can enlighten us both.

In the end, looking at the state of things in India, we figured it would be prudent to have an option to settle in the UK at some point.

So we have gone for British Citizenship for our daughter, we are still Indians on ILR, but intending to become naturalized end of this year as well.

Regards

[aspirant09]

Thanks InUkOnHsmp. I read your other post - very helpful info.

As I understand most of the people ( who commented on your post) suggest BC+OCI as the best option. Although I am still not sure of the benefits of BC except work authorization in EU.

I am also thinking of the below. Now it might be a case of me trying to be extra clever and am sure people might have thought of this before but worth mentioning again!

If in a family of three , the child gets a BC + OCI and ONLY ONE parent ( who is more likely to work in EU ) gets a BC and other parent remains on ILR, one might have best of both worlds for the child?
So, parent with BC + OCI can go and work in EU ( while being based in UK) and get all the other pros listed while if ever you want to go back to India, the ILR ( Indian) status of the other parent would get few of the cons sorted for your family? Not sure if that way the child can opt for Indian citizenship (as being a child to an Indian parent) without living in India for 5 years??? Also, if required all the property, equity etc can be transfered to the parent who remains on ILR so that way all financial queries are resolved as well?

[aledeniz]

I come from India

If you ask me, it is time for India, et alia, to introduce multiple citizenship provisions, and to restore citizenship to all the Indian (German, Chinese, Egyptian, Spanish, ..) citizens who may have lost it due the ongoing restrictions to multiple citizenship.

This is the XXI century global world we are living into, not some parochial and provincial XX century dystopia dreamed up by a XIX century counter-enlightenment regressive self referencing delusional maître à penser.

[InUkOnHsmp]

hi there,

Not sure if that way the child can opt for Indian citizenship (as being a child to an Indian parent) without living in India for 5 years???

Nope, once a British citizen, a minor cannot renounce it before 18 years.

Also, if required all the property, equity etc can be transfered to the parent who remains on ILR so that way all financial queries are resolved as well?

Yes thats true, but if you ask me I find it unlikely your existing investment wont work the same as they do now. You LIC policies should work just the same too, provided you declared you were an NRI and filled up the special NRI questionnaire for the same.

[ban.s]

2) If ever you want to go back to India forever, how easy is it to give up BC and get Indian Nationality?

Need to be living in India for 5 years, and previous 12 months continuously. If yes you can renounce BC and become Indian again. This is not valid for children, they cannot renounce BC till they are 18.

A person who is registered as an OCI for 5 years and is residing in India for 1 year out of the above 5 years, is eligible to apply for Indian Citizenship.

6) Can't apply to any Public service examinations or Indian Government job?

Not sure.

No

8.) If applicable- You might have to sell off all your existing Indian equity investments before you get BC? What about PPF,LIC etc?

Same provisions as a Non Resident India. You can continue to invest in an existing policy but can't extend the policy on maturity. Also can't buy new policies.

[InUkOnHsmp]

A person who is registered as an OCI for 5 years and is residing in India for 1 year out of the above 5 years, is eligible to apply for Indian Citizenship.

Thanks ban.s I was not aware of this.

Same provisions as a Non Resident India. You can continue to invest in an existing policy but can't extend the policy on maturity. Also can't buy new policies.

That is not true. NRIs can buy new policies, I bought one last year.
But British Citizens cannot buy term insurance policy from most insurance companies in India. You will only be offered money-back or endowment or some such spurious plans.

Also, I agree existing policies will not be affected by this.

[ban.s]

FYI - Indian citizenship act - Citizenship by registration u/section 5(g)
**
You are right with LICs but for PPF even an NRI can't buy a new policy.

[tshan]

Hi Aspiront09,
I thought exactly the same way as yourself but ultimately took British Citizenship for all my family members including myself.
But thinking now whether I should have stopped at ILR itself as I wanted to go back to India and settle.
So what decision did you took finally?

[IndiMarshall]

I dont think this is correct

6) Can get visiting or family Visa for Parents to visit UK anytime they want i.e without applying for visa everytime?

Can anyone confirm ?

[keerthi]

Thanks Everyone, I was searching for these information for some time.

Please can some one update on the properties/investments that are in India, I am also in the same situation and we have quite a few investments in India and worried about the taxation etc.

Please can someone help.

Regards,
Keerthi