Stateless Children to British Parents

[Jawad94]

Hello,

I'm a British citizen by descent, meaning I cannot pass British citizenship to my children if they were born outside the UK. My wife isn't British, and her country of origin doesn't allow mothers to pass citizenship to their children. Unfortunately, my child was born in a 3rd country, neither the UK nor my wife's country of origin. The result of this is that my child cannot have citizenship from any country as the country where my child was born doesn't grant citizenship upon birth.

While my wife was pregnant, we applied twice for a family visa to the UK, but both applications were rejected considering that people where she comes from need to be almost superhumans to be granted a 6-month visa.

I emailed HMPO, Home Office, FCDO, the British Embassy, and Nationality Enquiries and none of them was helpful. My wife's country of origin and my child's country of birth have nothing to do with the British overseas territories.

So I completely helpless now. Will my child deserve any British privilege in these exceptional circumstances?

Could you please guide me or recommend the right person that is eligible to find solutions for such unusual case.

Kind regards,

[CULLINAN]

What about your dual Syrian Nationality?

[secret.simon]

There is no direct explicit route that provides for a child in your specific circumstance, especially as you have never been to the UK.

I would suggest making an application to register the child as a British citizen under Section 3(1) on Form MN1.

Note that it is possible for this application to fail, as it is expected that the child and non-British parent have at least ILR before applying. Furthermore, given that you have never lived in the UK yourself, your connection to the UK itself is already quite weak and that of your child is even more tenuous.

However, there is scope for the Home Office to register a child in extreme compelling compassionate cases. So, if you can make such a case, the child could (and "could" is the operative word in this sentence. The application can be refused) be registered as a British citizen. You may have to make a case for why your Syrian nationality could not be inherited by your child, given that it descends by paternity.

Keep in mind that this kind of application is non-standard and will likely have to be decided at a higher level in the Home Office than usual and therefore it may take much longer than usual.

[Jawad94]

What about your dual Syrian Nationality?

I'm not allowed to enter Syria anymore, nor will the Syrian embassy issue documents for me.

[Jawad94]

There is no direct explicit route that provides for a child in your specific circumstance, especially as you have never been to the UK.

I would suggest making an application to register the child as a British citizen under Section 3(1) on Form MN1.

Note that it is possible for this application to fail, as it is expected that the child and non-British parent have at least ILR before applying. Furthermore, given that you have never lived in the UK yourself, your connection to the UK itself is already quite weak and that of your child is even more tenuous.

However, there is scope for the Home Office to register a child in extreme compelling compassionate cases. So, if you can make such a case, the child could (and "could" is the operative word in this sentence. The application can be refused) be registered as a British citizen. You may have to make a case for why your Syrian nationality could not be inherited by your child, given that it descends by paternity.

Keep in mind that this kind of application is non-standard and will likely have to be decided at a higher level in the Home Office than usual and therefore it may take much longer than usual.

I have a UK postal address, NIN, and bank account, but I will give it a try with this form.

Thanks