child born in USA to ILR parent

[Obie]

Yes I am not disputing you at all or saying you are wrong.

It is one of those cases that is hard to call. There is no authority and statute and respondents guidance are silent on it.

The law itself says " becomes settle" , if it had said remain settled on the day of application, then the issue would have been without dispute or question.

[Richard W]

@CR001: There is a principle is that British citizenship is only given to those who are not British nationals if they so wish. This is because acquiring a new nationality after birth can cause one to forfeit an existing nationality.

Sections 1(3) (parental settlement or becoming a British citizen after the child's birth) and 1(4) (the 10-year rule) mop up cases where exclusion of these people born in the UK was, in retrospect, hasty. But for that principle, the beneficiaries would automatically become British upon qualifying. (Registration fees used to be reflect cost, rather than be a tax. This registration was then an inalienable right, not a privilege dependent upon good character.) These are similar to the injustice-righting entitlements remedied by forms UKM (British mother before 1983) and UKF (unmarried father).

Legitimation and its successor, the SSHD's acceptance of a claim to paternity, are an exception, but they continue a state of affairs from before the 1981 act.

@Obie: You mean "be settled", not "remain settled". (This is a question where one has to be picky about words.) If a parent were settled at the time of birth, the child would be born British.