Joint Citizenship Application For Mother & Daughter?

[TCA]

My wife and stepdaughter (age 15) both have ILR (Sept 2018) and we're now looking at British citizenship applications. Both are Thai nationals (born in Thailand) and I am British. My wife has been in the UK since 2013 and stepdaughter since 2016.

We've started the online (naturalisation) application for my wife and at the end it asks as if we want to add another application. Am I correct in thinking that my stepdaughter's application is for 'registration' not 'naturalisation' therefore she cannot be added with my wife's application?

I went through the motions of adding my stepdaughter's details and am obviously saying 'no' to meeting the English language and Life in the UK requirements (because she doesn't need them on age grounds), so this just doesn't look right. Can anyone please confirm?

Also does anyone know the rules regarding date validity of any passport included in a citizenship application? Does it just have to be unexpired at time of application or throughout the entire process until approval/refusal?

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[CR001]

Am I correct in thinking that my stepdaughter's application is for 'registration' not 'naturalisation' therefore she cannot be added with my wife's application?

Correct, however you can add the child and make a single application. Ho do know the rules.

I went through the motions of adding my stepdaughter's details and am obviously saying 'no' to meeting the English language and Life in the UK requirements (because she doesn't need them on age grounds), so this just doesn't look right. Can anyone please confirm?

It is correct. You are adding her mn1 to your spouse's Application, as it allows.

Also does anyone know the rules regarding date validity of any passport included in a citizenship application? Does it just have to be unexpired at time of application or throughout the entire process until approval/refusal?

No requirement to be valid for the whole time while application is pending.

[TCA]

Thank you very much for the quick reply CR001.

That's great. The applications seem onerous enough (given there's a lot of repetition from several previous visa applications), so the idea of separate applications and separate biometrics appointments would've been a bit of a nightmare. Thank you for clarifying.

I must have done something wrong however because there was no mention of MN1 and now looking at the pdf of the application so far, my stepdaughter's entries are also classed as 'application for Apply for naturalisation as a British Citizen' showing the same fee as for my wife.

There just appears to be an option for 'Additional applicant', then in this case I selected 'child under 18' but given the categorisation and pricing this still looks wrong. Any suggestions?

Thanks for confirming the passport situation. Getting ahead of myself here but a quick related question - is it the same for a UK passport application? Can you make a UK passport application with an expired foreign passport?

[CR001]

Note you still need two separate biometric appointments.

There just appears to be an option for 'Additional applicant', then in this case I selected 'child under 18' but given the categorisation and pricing this still looks wrong. Any suggestions?

I don't have access to the inline forms. If you don't feel confident, complete MN1 separately for your step daughter and form AN ok not for your wife.

Thanks for confirming the passport situation. Getting ahead of myself here but a quick related question - is it the same for a UK passport application? Can you make a UK passport application with an expired foreign passport?

You will be required to send all uncancelled pasaports.

[TCA]

Ok, thanks CR001.

If anyone out there has completed recent online citizenship applications for a parent and child (under 18), were you able to do so with one application?

Re the passport applications and uncancelled passports, my wife still has her first expired Thai passport and its replacement which will be well in-date, so no trouble to include these. My stepdaughter's first and only Thai passport expires in September this year, so given the citizenship application takes around 6 months, if her passport has expired by the time citizenship is hopefully approved, does she also need to supply a new in-date passport in order to apply for a UK passport?

[TCA]

Having done further extensive searching of the official UK government website, I'm not surprised to conclude that it's as useless and non user-friendly as it was during all my previous visa applications.

The question is simple - can an application to register a child as a British citizen be included in their parent's naturalisation application?

Before starting the online form for the parent (AN) it says "In your application, you can also include family members. Each person included in the application will be assessed against the statutory requirements in their own right.".

So far so good. In the very next sentence it says "You can also apply on behalf of a child under 18 if they meet the eligibility criteria. Read more about citizenship for children under 18 in Guide MN1."

I read the linked MN1 guidance pdf. Still looking ok to add the child into the adult application. Nothing says otherwise. It even mentions a 'family application':

"Where one or both parents are applying for British citizenship they may apply for one or more children who are not automatically British at birth to be registered as British citizens as part of a “family application”.

But not until you've completed the parent application and then clicked 'Additional applicant', then selected 'child under 18' and gone through the lengthy process of adding the child application and saved it, does it appear from the saved pdf that you've added another naturalisation application.

Eventually in the 'Apply for citizenship if you have indefinite leave to remain or 'settled status'' section, I found a line which says "You must apply separately for your children - you cannot include them in your own application." This should really be stated at the outset of every type of application.

And after all that, from the above section there's no link to the online form and if you follow the links as directed to the MN1 guidance pdf, there's no link there either. I had to use the search facility otherwise I wouldn't have known there was anything other than a paper version. So for anyone who needs it, here it is:

https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/product/mn1

If I've got this completely wrong, someone please tell me!

[Hammer2001]

We are in the same position.
My wife got her ILR last month and we want to apply for citizenship for her and my step-daughter who got ILE in 2014 when they first came to the UK.

If we have to fill out separate online applications for my wife's AN and my step-daughter's MN1, do we have to wait until my wife's application for citizenship has been approved before we submit my step-daughters?

If not, how do they link up the applications? Because as I understand it my step-daughter could only get citizenship once her mother has it.

[Hammer2001]

Just to update on this.

We have just finished submitting a joint AN and MN1 online application for my wife and my step-daughter,
We just selected child under 18 when adding the second applicant.
The fees charged at the end were correct £1330 for the AN and £1012 for the MN1 plus the biometrics fees.

So this can be done online.

[TCA]

Just to update on this.

We have just finished submitting a joint AN and MN1 online application for my wife and my step-daughter,
We just selected child under 18 when adding the second applicant.
The fees charged at the end were correct £1330 for the AN and £1012 for the MN1 plus the biometrics fees.

So this can be done online.

Thanks for the update. I haven't looked at this since my last post above but previously selecting child under 18 just added another AN application. Definitely sounds like it has changed. I'll delete the child application and try again. Hopefully it works now.