Originally Posted by
Raffles
And your kid gets British citizenship as well. What more could you want?
Not true any more. Since the British Nationality Act 1981 came into force in 1983, British citizenship is only conferred by birth in the UK if at least one of the parents is settled in the UK (i.e. is a British citizen; is a non-British citizen with the right of abode in the UK; is an Irish citizen; has indefinite leave to remain in the UK; or is a person in the UK under EU rules who is a permanent resident of the UK (this last having been variously defined at different times but is now generally taken to be after five years' ordinary residence in the UK)).
Indeed, the principal reason for the change in the nationality laws in this respect was precisely because people were coming to the UK to give birth so that the baby would be a British citizen. Most other countries with a
jus soli basis of citizenship have made similar changes (e.g. Australia in 1986, Ireland in 2004, New Zealand in 2005), and for the same reason. Just about the only "major" countries that still grant citizenship solely on the basis of birth in the territory are the USA and Canada.