EU citizen - baby born in the UK

[Petana]

Hi, just wondering if anyone could advise please. I am a Czech national with UK residency card. My baby will be born in the UK. I don't have ILR yet but would be able to apply next year. Do I need to have ILR for my baby to get British passport?
many thanks Petana

[Wanderer]

Hi, just wondering if anyone could advise please. I am a Czech national with UK residency card. My baby will be born in the UK. I don't have ILR yet but would be able to apply next year. Do I need to have ILR for my baby to get British passport?
many thanks Petana

What nationality is the father?

[John]

Petana, if the father is British then the child will be British as soon as born.

If the father is not British, the question is ... will you get your PR status before or after the birth of the baby? If before the baby will be British as soon as born, if the birth is in the UK. But if you will get PR status after the birth, or if the birth is outside the UK, then an application will need to be made (after you have your PR) to register the child as British. Fee £400.

But let's investigate when you will get your PR status! Can you detail your UK immigration history please? When did you move to the UK? In what way have you been exercising your EU Treaty Rights? Employed? Self-employed? Or how?

[Petana]

Hi John, thanks for your prompt reponse.

I am lawfully married to my husband who is Iraqi Kurd - we have spoken about him in past. He is one of the legacy cases awaiting answer - hopefully ILR since we got MP involved and got lots of local support.

I came to the country from the Czech Republic in November 2004 and started working on permanent basis for a recruitment agency. After a year I have applied for residency permit. I have been with the company since and will receive SML from them. I believe that I will be able to apply for ILR in NOvember 2009 ( not sure I will be doing it since the Czech Republic doesn't allow dual citizenship and I don't want to loose my Czech passport).

My baby will be born in the UK.

Hope this is enough info. THanks Petana

[John]

I believe that I will be able to apply for ILR in NOvember 2009

You will not be able to apply for ILR in that month, or indeed ever! But you will be able to apply for PR ... Permanent Residence ... the EU equivalent of ILR.

Especially now it is important that the differences between PR and ILR are appreciated. For starters, whilst an applicant for ILR needs to pass the Life in the UK Citizenship test, that is not applicable to PR.

The way that the EU regulations, that came into force on 30.04.06, are worded means that on the 5th anniversary of you starting to exercise your Treaty Rights in the UK you will automatically get PR ... even without application. That is, whilst you can submit a form EEA3, that is entirely voluntary, and the Permanent Residence document that will be issued will be merely confirmatory of the rights you acquired automatically. But not sure when the WRS arrangements finally expire, but if still in force in November 2009, you might want to submit an EEA3, in order to readily prove that you do have PR status.

( not sure I will be doing it since the Czech Republic doesn't allow dual citizenship and I don't want to loose my Czech passport)

No problem, because neither ILR nor PR are citizenship of the UK, so your country can have no problem you getting your PR in November 2009. Now, a separate matter, after you have had your PR status for one year, you would be entitled to apply for Naturalisation as British, but based upon what you have posted, I suspect that you will not be submitting such an application.

My baby will be born in the UK.

I don't know how pregnant you are but it is completely obvious that the baby will be born before you get your PR in November 2009!. Accordingly the child will not be British when born. I would guess that the child will be Czech, but that is something you either know or can check with your embassy. I expect there to be a procedure for you to go through to get your child a Czech passport, without which he/she is effectively locked inside the UK.

we have spoken about him in past

Sorry, I totally overlooked that. The context of your current query did not trigger that in my mind.

[Petana]

John - I must applaude you. You have covered every possible scenario. Thank you so much for all the info.

[RayJay]

Hi

As John has explained everything in detail, from a personal experience I would just add this extended info about the baby situation.

If you wanna visit Czech before you get Citizenship then the baby must have Czech birth certificate to travel.

As my other half is from Czech and we had a baby last Nov too, that we did.

(Assuming you have already registered your marriage with Czech Embassy.) if NOT, follow same procedure as below for birth certificate.


1- Get a FULL birth certificate from local registry office (£7 I guess).

2- Legalise the baby certificate from Foreign & Commonwealth office
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/ ... on/by-post cost £32 each document plus Special delivery £5.

3- Make a appointment with Czech Embassy http://www.mzv.cz/wwwo/default.asp?ido= ... tIDO=15424

4- Loads of forms to fill in on appointment

5- It takes about 3 months to get a baby birth certificate from Czech embassy! as they send it to Prague then Brno. (if you want SPEED UP you can contact to Brno office and ask them to send it to an address in Czech to save about one month.

6- Once you get the Birth certificate, Make another appointment to add baby's name in your passport


HTH

Ray

[Petana]

Hi Ray,

firstly congratulations on your baby and thanks for the great info !

We have indeed registered our marriage with the Czech Embassy two years ago. I can see that the birth register is very similar to the marriage one - very tedious

Thanks and regards

Petra

[JAJ]

If you wanna visit Czech before you get Citizenship then the baby must have Czech birth certificate to travel.

The child needs either a Czech or a British passport ... a birth certificate on its own will not do.