Born in UK to EU parents

[idoor]

Hi everyone,

My parents (both German) lived in the UK from early 1988 until late 1993. My father worked here and I was born here in 1989. My parents told me that when I was little they received a letter asking if they wanted to claim UK citizenship for me. At the time they didn't, as Germany did not allow for dual citizenship – as far as I am aware, this has changed in 2007.

I came back to live, study, and work in the UK almost a decade ago – my life is here, so I am now wondering: Is it possible for me to make this claim now? Has anyone here gone through this process? From the documents I can find online, it looks like I just need to fill out a UK passport application and include my UK birth certificate, and evidence that my parents were living and working the UK at the time? Should I also write a cover letter explaining the reasoning of my claim or is this not needed?

Any help is much appreciated!

[alterhase58]

Perhaps you can provide some more details on your circumstances?
Your father/parents were here only five years? Did they obtain ILR (PR) before they left? Do you or father still have the letter from HO offering registration of BC? You are correct, dual citizenship is allowed now (I have both).
There are some members on here who are very knowledgeable on the evolution of British nationality laws, so I will leave it to them to comment further, but as much detail as possible would be useful.

[Obie]

The fact that you did not apply for citizenship does not mean you are not.

You are a British citizen if either of your parents were exercising treaty rights at your birth. If only your father was exercising treaty right, you will be British if he was married to your mother.

[idoor]

Thanks for your replies.

Unfortunately, my parents don't have the letter I mentioned above anymore. My parents were in the UK for almost 6 years. I assume that my parents obtained ILR automatically after they had been in the UK exercising treaty rights for 5+ years and that I, as their child born in the UK, would have obtained the right to British nationality at that point, is that correct?

My father was already married to my mother before they had me and before they came to the UK – I have a marriage certificate. He was the one working and 'exercising treaty rights'. As evidence, I have a variety of documents: e.g. in my UK birth certificate, it states my parents' UK address, as well as my father's occupation. I have documents from my father's old mortgage in the UK, old letters from his employment, as well as a recent letter from his employer (he still works for the same company) confirming that he was working at their UK office at the time. I also have E101 form copies – how does the Home Office handle copies of documents? I realise that obviously the passport, birth certificate etc. need to be originals, but I am not sure it's possible to obtain, for example, the old E101 forms as originals, as these have been archived by his employer as scans/PDFs. Unfortunately, we were unable to get P60 forms or other old tax info from HMRC who say they don't have this data anymore.

When making an application to the Home Office, is it customary to write a cover letter explaining the reasoning of my claim and the documents provided?

[JAJ]

Confirmation of British nationality status application would appear to make sense:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... us-form-ns

All the evidence suggested is reasonable (keep copies). HMRC may not have tax records, however National Insurance records should still be available.

Germany has always- at least since 1949- allowed dual German/other citizenship for German citizens acquiring another citizenship automatically by birth.