Getting a British Passport
 

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the wrong forum, so if I am my apologies and feel free to move it as needed.

Anyhow, I was born in the US. My father is a US citizen. My mother is British. Can I get a British passport? I've heard conflicting information regarding this and was initially told I could only if my father was born in the UK, not my mother. Now I hear I can if I was born between 1963 and 1981.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks
Ian

Wow, this is complicated. On first reading, it would appear not, because pre-1983, you had to have a British father. However, later legislation (the Nationality Act, 1981) appears to have back-dated a change, so that if you were born between 1961 and 1983, you can apply for registration. This leaflet would seem to outline the circumstances

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind...izenship.html?

And if unsure, there is a contact address on the leaflet for more information.

I would like a British passport too.

Any suggestions? :)

yes how does that work? i looked into that but no dice. i then looked into getting a polish passport. my mom is first generation polock. (no jokes please) born in the US but from polish parents. any clues.

enviroian, YGPM.

This is a complicated subject. I have a big birthday coming up next year, and for my present I think I will be getting a British passport. I was born in the UK in 1956, but my parents were US citizens (stationed there in the Air Force). As I understand it, all persons born in the UK prior to 1983 have British citizenship:

People born in the United Kingdom before 1 January 1983

5. Anyone born in the United Kingdom before 1 January 1983 is a British citizen (unless born to certain people holding diplomatic or consular status).

So I think this grants me the right to that coveted EU passport, and I think that the US now allows dual citizenship, right?

Correct. If you were born in the U.K. before 1 January 1983 you automatically became a British Citizen unless your father was a foreign diplomat or one of your parents a consul.

Tsk, tsk, especially considering the oath people take to become US citizens requires them to give up such loyalties and even more amazingly requires them to give an oath to God.

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God. In acknowledgement whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature.

I have the opposite, my father is British Citizen, and I'm US, and so is my mom.
Where can I find forms to apply? or do you have pointers

check out the Home Office link i gave above... there's a whole load of information on this area.

@:-)

Must schedule another trip soon... ;)

Check out the UK link below on dual citizenship.

http://www.britainusa.com/sections/a...=41001&a=25317

You can download the forms and instructions from http://www.britainusa.com passport section of this website.

I had no problem doing this for my US Born children, so now they have US and UK passports.

You and everyone else; I'd flip if I could attain dual nationality between the US and UK.

-Vincent

i got my US citizenship a few years ago. It was the first year that the US allowed dual citizenship and I was allowed to keep my UK passport.
I have not renewed it however, and travel on my US passport.

Nobody takes this seriously. The U.S. Government will never figure out what country's you are a citizen of anyway.

If either of your parents was born in Britain, you have a valid claim to British citizenship. The only potential problem is if you were born out of wedlock. If your mother and father were NOT married at the time of your birth, your claim to British citizenship is invalid. Having said that, your biological parents may marry today and your claim to British citizenship will once again be valid (no, I don't know why).

Why don't you complete an application for a British Passport at www.britainusa.com ? The Passport Office in Washington, D.C. will guide you regarding what documents to submit.

Good luck!

Does the US even allow dual citizenship? My brother tells me otherwise. He is a US citizen, born and raised. His wife was born in Copenhagen. Their US born daughter carries both a US and Danish passport. He was told however when their daughter reaches 18 yrs old she will have to choose one or the other as the US does not recognize dual citizenship.

Can anyone prove or disprove this? This obviously goes into my weighting of getting a UK passport if infact the US doens't observe dual citizenship.

Thanks
Ian

This is correct. At age eighteen an American citizen must choose between their foreign citizenship or that of the U.S.

Obviously, most people will choose to retain their U.S. citizenship. However, even if you do not carry a valid British passport, you will never lose your British citizenship. The expired passport can be used as evidence of your right to live and work in the E.U.

Thanks for the info. I guess I'm still a little confused by your UK citizenship comment. So even if I "tell" the US that I let my UK passport expire, I still will be a British citizen? I guess the bottom line is should I be applying for a UK passport knowing it is illegal to carry both a US and UK passport. :confused:

Check State Department web site
 

You do not lose U.S. citizenship unless you really wnt to and you do not need to chsoose one when you turn 18.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1753.html

You may want to take advice about the position of families of members of armed forces stationed in the UK under NATO agreements. There are special provisions about them but I can't remember them off the top of my head. But if the normal law applied to you then, you ought to have been in a position to acquire British citizenship when it came into existence on 1 January 1983.You might have been born a dual national, in which case you would probably keep both UK and US as long as you complied with the US' requirements on this. (The UK doesn't care how many countries you're a citizen of.)If you are born illegitimate, you may still have a claim to British citizenship through your mother even if you can't claim it through your father. So the situation is not quite as simple as you make out. Also, as has already been said, the mere fact of your parents' birth in the UK is not by itself enough either to give you British citizenship or a right to register for it.

And applying for a passport is no good unless you can demonstrate that you are already a British citizen. If you have to register first, you won't get a British passport until that process is complete.I don't think this is right. As I understand the US system, someone who is born a dual national is entitled to keep that. You have to continue to satisfy the US' requirements in relation to travel, etc. but you don't have to choose. Some other countries do make you choose, but not the US.

There always seemed to me to be one very good reason to reject US citizenship, anyway, if one had the choice and it wasn't much other use: you'd escape the worldwide tax! :D

Why is this obvious?

This could well be a Danish rule rather than a US one. I know that in a number of European countries the law is that children may have dual nationality but adults must choose one or the other - I know this is the case in Germany where (with some exceptions) the age limit for dual nationality is 23, and I understand other countries have similar rules.

this is not true for germany anymore. I got double nationality french-german
last year by adopting french nationality. you have to ask authorities to keep german nationality before you choose a new one. it works. works in the other way, too.

Different rules for different people
 

Some of the rules can be interpreted very differently. For example, if you are female, of age approximately 25 to 45 with no children and don't want children in the future, above 5 foot 6, possess you own hair and teeth, do not break mirrors with your looks, have a sense of humour and understand FTers, then a British passport could be yours via what may be referred to as the PM route.

I may have the odd single female friend out there as well ;)

Good luck in your strife to become a subject of Her Britannic Majesty QE II gawd bless you ma'am.

You have to distinguish between people who are born dual nationals, but are merely applying for a passport of the "other" country in an "old" age, and people who are actually applying for another nationality.

Denmark does not allow dual nationality as a rule. This means that you have to surrender your existing nationality if you want to apply for Danish nationality, but Danish nationals can apply for other nationalities without losing Danish nationality, subject to the foreign country's rules. However if you are born with dual nationality - eg. if you have parents of different nationalities - you keep Danish nationality for life, on condition that you are born in Denmark or - if born abroad - that you have lived at least one year in Denmark before you reach 22 years.

As I mentioned in my prior post the US only started allowing dual citizenship a few years ago (3 ?). My son was born in England but had US citizenship as his father was us, and yes, at 18 he had to choose (or 21, forget exactly) but that was before the change. I don't know that it would even be an issue now. I do believe that before the change my UK passport would have been taken.

South Africa has also recently started allowing people to acquire a second nationality, but requires an application to be made for permission to do so. And Australia changed its law a few years ago that simply lifted the bar on acquiring a second nationality, and I don't think any application for permission is needed.

In the middle of all this seriousness, I think it's time for an anecdote about dual nationality, told by Bill Bryson:-

An academic and his family, who had lived in the US for some years returned to the UK. All but their youngest child, aged 4 years, had UK passports. That child had only a US passport but no visa to live in the UK, and hadn't been registered as British.

Asked by the immigration officer, “how long will you be staying in the UK?”, the academic's truthful answer is one year.

“What about the American child?” queries the officer. Without a visa, this child can only enter as a visitor, staying for a maximum of 6 months. After some discussion the officer says he will have to discuss this with his supervisor.

Returning, he says to the academic, “My supervisor will come and ask you how long the child will be staying in the UK. When he does, say two weeks.”

The supervisor duly comes over and asks the question. The academic duly gives the answer "Two weeks".

“That’s OK then,” he says, stamping the passport. Almost as an afterthought he remarks, “While you’re in the UK, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get the child registered, just in case you decide to stay longer.”

If applying for American citizenship, is one forced to give up their current citizenship? My brother is married to an American, has permanent residency, his son is in the process of becoming a dual citizen, I assume he will apply for citizenship when he has qualified. But I can't imagine him giving up his Australian citizenship.

goodo

Don't worry GWB will be out of office by 2009 so if you can just hold on till then. Of course he may be succeeded by Jeb so best have a Plan B ready as per CluebyFour's suggestion. www.loopylove.co.uk? ;)

Yeah, I guess I'll have to start taking advantage of the new licensing laws for pubs in London. Maybe that's the solution... @:-)

:D

might as well get all the forms for social benefits as well as this is one great place to live and get well paid for not working. They will even pay for all yoour medical bills, education and even provide you with a house and a holiday each year. Make sure you brig all your cousins as well

Hmmm... I read this section, and I am as confused as ever. To paraphrase, it states that the US recognizes dual nationality, but if an adult applies for it, they may lose US citizenship. Now in my case, I think I already am a British citizen by virtue of birth prior to 1983, so I would not be subject to the previously mentioned may. But I wonder, under what conditions would the US strip citizenship from someone applying to be a dual national? I have some speculation, but I'll reserve it for OMNI.

From the State Department website:
The Supreme Court has ruled that the State Department cannot infer an intention to give up US cistizenship simply by applying for and receiving foreign citizenship.

Here is in excellent FAQ on dual citizenship prepared by a private individual.

http://www.richw.org/dualcit/

The guy has obviously done a fair amount of research and cites to many sources.

Mhttoanywhere, you are so incredibly incorrect that it pains me to write here. Three years??? Sorry, wrong, up until the 1960's there was a lot of ambiguity, however you are welcome to do some real research and find out for yourself for what you posted was incorrect.

the 18 yearold thing is an idiotic canard that I hear over and over again. The US has NEVER EVER EVER had any such provision, this sort of provision is more normal in certain central and northern European states such as Germany and Austria,and in the case of Germany is no longer 100% binding in all circumstances.

Every frigging time this subject comes up, all the armchair experts come out of the woodwork and pass off urban legend as fact. A US citizen can take up pretty much any second third, fourth or TENTH nationality that he/she wants as long as he/she does not intend to relinquish US citizenship, commit treason against the US, bea tax fraud, work in certain positions in foreign governments w/o State Dept prior approval, or serve in the armed forces of another state (although there are a million loopholes in that one regarding cumpulsory service, NATO allies, etc.). this has been the case for MANY decades.

I have posted the following everytime this subject comes up. Citizenship laws exist in vacuums, each countries laws have no relationship or bearing with any other laws. Many countries legally DO NOT allow you to renounce citizenship, therefore taking an oath to do so means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING as the country you are "leaving" still considers you a citizen NO MATTER WHAT. Even if you do renounce, there is often little that keeps you from becoming a citizen of another country AFTER you attain the new citizenship. Even countries with the most restrictive of laws, such as Austri, have a few loopholes.

Well, I may be incorrect, I would never say never. However I do remember just before getting my citizenship (us) a celebrity was in the newspapers as being the first person to get US citizenship and be able to retain UK citizenship. So, I could be wrong, but by virtue of believing what I read!
Hey, we seem to have a lot of opinions here, so no need to be all over me!
Just say you don't agree.

So will I, a high tolerance to alcohol does have its uses. ;)

You forgot the bit about divorcing once you gain citizenship and then having to go back to the “home” country for a replacement bride. Doesn’t matter if she can’t or isn’t willing to speak English as the printing of NHS forms in yet another foreign language will surely boost economic activity.

But this only when one applies for US citizenship when one would otherwise have no right to it. People who have right to dual citizenship are generally permitted to hold dual nationality (myself included). There has been a Supreme Court case or two in which the Court ruled in favor of people to remain dual citizens who had that right from birth (even if they were not passport holders their entire life) when US authorities attempted to strip them of the US citizenship.

Losing US nationality is pretty difficult and generally requires (from what I have read), one does some pretty bad things to upset the US government (i.e. serving in the armed forced of another country, although I believe Israel is an exception to that rule).

This is incorrect. I am 24 and a dual citizen holding US citizenship. I was never forced to choose. Neither were my two brothers. There are no laws in the US having this requirement. (And see my above post regarding Supreme Court cases upholding some peoples' rights to dual nationality.)

Germany does have this requirement. In fact, the new laws introduced not too long ago actually state that if one does not before the age of 20 inform the authorities of one's intention to keep or relinquish Germany nationality (in favor of another), they will assume one has choosen to relinquish Germany nationality.

The US Supreme Court has taken the view that citizenship is a basic Constitutional right, so it's almost impossible for a natural-born citizen to involuntarily lose citizenship. Even in the cases of acts against the United States, in some ways its easier to prosecute a citizen than a non-citizen.

On the other hand, I've heard people complain that the US makes it difficult to renounce citizenship, even if you really want to. Don't plan on this as a way of escaping your back taxes.

NATO visas are include in this rule same in the US children of A1/A2 and NATO visa cannot be US citizens by birth