Applying for Sons British citizenship?

[Testit]

Hi guys,

 

Wifey and I have just had our first child and want him to have British Citizenship - Im sick of trying to get a response from the British High Commission in London, im not even 100% sure this is the place to contact?

 

Has anyone been in this situation?

 

Cheers,

Jon.

[RockDr]

Your son was born in Australia to British parents?

 

He is automatically a British Citizen by descent. You just have to apply for a passport. all the info you need to know about applying for a UK passport from australia is on this webspage: http://auspost.com.au/personal/united-kingdom-british-passports.html

 

NB: as an asde, if your son never returns to live in the UK for three or more years AND his children are born outside the UK, they will not be entitled to British citizenship. British citizenship can only be passed down a single generation outside of the UK.

[Guest Guest5035]

Congrats on the son, but its not the way to go, Australian Citizenship is the way to go..when he grows up he might want to change it to British.

 

stevo

[RockDr]

not helpful stevo, the kid is a dual citizen (assuming the parents are on a PR visa), he doesn't have to choose...

[Guest Guest5035]

never assume

[Testit]

Thanks guys,

 

Our son was born in Australia to an English Dad and Japanese Mum - both on PR. He has an Australian birth cert so is naturally an Australian Citizen. We want him to have Both English and Japanese also.

 

So all we need to do is apply for a British passport? - I think Uk Embassy in NZ is the closest as the Australian one has closed - rather strange given the amount of poms here and people travelling to the UK from Australia??

[Guest Guest5035]

British Consulate in Adelaide, give them a ring

http://maps.google.com.au/maps/place?hl=en&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4ADFA_enAU444AU444&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&ion=1&biw=1214&bih=589&wrapid=tlif132002412342510&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=consulate+in+adelaide&fb=1&gl=au&hq=consulate&hnear=0x6ab0c93b70926705:0x5033654628ea7f0,Adelaide+SA&cid=2327318078399729162

 

 

stevo

[Guest Guest5035]

or here

 

http://ukinaustralia.fco.gov.uk/en/

 

stevo

[RockDr]

You don't need to talk to a consulate, just fill out the forms and take them to the postoffice in australia, as per the instructions in the link I posted earlier. They do in fact get sent to the NZ embassy for processing, but you don't have to worry about that. Turn around time is quoted as up to six weeks, I got mine back in three weeks last year.

[Guest Guest5035]

not helpful stevo,

 

the above 2 posts were though

 

stevo

[RockDr]

I think they just decided that it's more efficient to have the one passport processing facility in this part of the world, and NZ probably has cheaper rents.

 

Re passports: It's international law that you're supposed to use the passport of a country you hold citizenship for when entering or leaving that country. So for example, on a vist from australia to the uk, your son would show the Australian passport to exit australia, the UK passport to enter and then leave the UK, and then the Australian passport to re-enter australia at the end of the trip.

[Testit]

Excellent, thanks to the both of you!

[Guest seba771]

Good bless dual citizenship.

The right to go to several places in the world to live and work is amazing and you can visit other countries without a visa. I would say that it has no price.

Congratulation Testit for the new member of the family

Be careful because some countries requires that the person must resign to other citizenship at certain age or at the moment of getting the citizenship.

For instance: Germany and Holand.

I don't know the Japanese.

[RockDr]

Just looked up the japanese citizenship laws. They're complicated. The Japanese don't allow dual citizenship: http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tnl-01.html

 

so it looks like Testit's son is japanese by birth, but has retroactively lost citizenship by getting his australian and UK citizenship. At age 20 or if he ever goes to live in Japan while under the age of 20, he can choose to be Japanese by stating that he is renouncing his UK and Australian nationalities. (I think the UK would still regard him as British though, unless he actively fills out the forms to lose his UK citizenship - which it doesn't look like the Japanese would require him to). Not sure how Australian citizenship law deals with this situation.

 

Looks like the easiest thing is to just leave the Japanese side of things alone, and only apply for his passport if ever the need arises (i.e. if ever he wants to go live in Japan). But it might be worth having a chat to a lawyer specialising in international citizenship.

[RockDr]

Just read the japanese website again. It seems that testit's son can do the declaration of choice to choose japanese citizenship, but still keep up his other nationalities. It only becomes an issue if he wants to work in Japan in a job that is limited to Japanese nationals, in which case he would need to formally go through renouncing his other citizenships. Again, probably worth speaking to a lawyer to check.

[Guest guest3462]

All we did is apply for a UK passport for Isla. We downloaded the forms then took them to marion post office and they did the rest, I think it cost around $185. We recieved her passport 10 days later. We can apply for her to have a British birth certificate if we want to, but she has an aussie one and will be an aussie citizen as soon as they will let her in 2013 so we won't bother. Dual citizenship is an extremely great gift to give your child - it maximes their opportunities later in life.Congratulations on your baby and good luck

JC x

[Guest seba771]

There you are!

You see? It's complicated. It depends on the country.

For example, Argentina doesn't recognize the resignation of the citizenship. That means that if you are Argentinian you will be recognized by Argentina as an Argentinian for the rest of your life, no mater what other country says about resigning other citizenship.

What happen in that case with countries that requires the citizenship resignation? I have no clue.

[RockDr]

another page with more info about the japanese "choice of citienship" http://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tcon-01.html

[RockDr]

There you are!

You see? It's complicated. It depends on the country.

For example, Argentina doesn't recognize the resignation of the citizenship. That means that if you are Argentinian you will be recognized by Argentina as an Argentinian for the rest of your life, no mater what other country says about resigning other citizenship.

What happen in that case with countries that requires the citizenship resignation? I have no clue.

 

It would depend whether the other country required evidence of giving up your citizenship. most countries just ask you to "declare" that you are doing so. If the other country was really strict, then I guess they wouldn't grant citizenship.

 

If the person gets the second nationality, I think the person holds both nationalities, but the countries involved only recognise their own nationality.

 

so country A says that person is A-ish, and country B says that person is B-ish. If they are in country A, then they are effectively A-ish, if they are in country B, they are effectively B-ish, and if they are abroad, then they can pretty much use which ever citizenship is most convenient.

[Testit]

Yes I think thats correct about the Japanese not allowing Dual Citizenship - When my son becomes a certain age he will have to decide where his loyalties lie. If he wants to be Japanese he will forfeit his Australian and British Citizenships - thats from the Japanese consulate in Melbourne. Hopefully you are correct though RockDr and he can somehow keep all 3!!

 

If we did not apply for his Japanese Citizenship within 3 months of birth, he would never be entitled to it. Pretty tough laws in Japan about this kind of thing....

 

Thanks again.

[RockDr]

It certainly looks like he can just do the declaration and not need to provide evidence that he's renounced the others. Which would mean that Japan would consider him to be only Japanese, but UK and Australia would consider him a multi-citizen.

 

Even if he does renounce his UK citizenship at any stage, UK citizenship laws allow you to regain your citizenship ONCE after giving it up for another citizenship.

[Rammygirl]

All we did is apply for a UK passport for Isla. We downloaded the forms then took them to marion post office and they did the rest, I think it cost around $185. We recieved her passport 10 days later. We can apply for her to have a British birth certificate if we want to, but she has an aussie one and will be an aussie citizen as soon as they will let her in 2013 so we won't bother. Dual citizenship is an extremely great gift to give your child - it maximes their opportunities later in life.Congratulations on your baby and good luck

JC x

 

Why does she have to wait til 2013? are you not PR ? Looks like you have a 176 visa so Isla would be a citizen of Oz by birth and will therefore need an oz passport to travel outside of Oz. She is also a British citizen by descent. You may have to wait until 2013 for your citizenship - but she is already a citizen!

[Guest guest3462]

No she isn't! We were not PR holders when she was born. We were here on a 457 visa and as she was premature DIAC suspended our 176 application and made her have a medical to make sure she would not be a burden on society!! Therefore she had to be added to our application and as such is a British Citizen born abroad. Simply being born in this country does not unfortunately make you a citizen.

We will have resided in Australia for the required 4 years in Jan 2013 and will all qualify for citizenship then.

[Rammygirl]

Oh I see, just from your signature line looks like a 176 only, so looked like you were PR from the start.

I do realise that only children born to PR holders in Oz are citizens. Still you will all become citizens together soon enough.

[foxychick]

out of interest, how do you apply for a british birth cert?