British citizenship for a child born in the UK

pravinuk · Post by **pravinuk** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:40 pm

I will be grateful if someone help me out on following dilemma please. My son was born in the UK a month ago. Me and my wife hold ILR. We got Indian passport for my son so that we could travel to India immediately. For him to return back to the UK we will have to apply for dependent visa from India.
A friend of mine suggested - apply for british passport in the UK which we should get in 6 weeks then surrender his indian passport and apply for OCI. I assume applicant need not to be in the UK for this. If I send british passport + OCI to him in India - can he travel back to the UK? He wont have 'entry stamp' but can we get away by showing passport surrender certificate?
Not sure if I am making it too complicated. Looking at the other posts- applying for british citizenship from India seems very difficult and takes really long.
Thanks in advance

mealos · Post by **mealos** » Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:58 pm

Mate I am not an expert but I know one thing for sure is a baby born from settled parent in UK is UK citizen.

I presume if you apply with birth certificate and your BRP's your baby should be given passport immediately by the embassy .

Post by **Jambo** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 7:59 am

mealos wrote:I presume if you apply with birth certificate and your BRP's your baby should be given passport immediately by the embassy .

Immediately means 1-3 weeks in the UK. 16 weeks in India...

Application for a British passport should be made in the country the applicant is present. No idea about surrendering an India passport and OCI.

BTW - when you applied for an Indian passport, didn't you had to produce evidence that the child is not British? Or did just stating that he didn't apply for a British passport was enough?

harshil223 · Post by **harshil223** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 8:03 am

I second to Jambo. Application must be made in the country where the child is present. I am in such process for my son who was born in the UK and then moved to India on Indian passport when his registration as British Citizen via form MN1 was in process. Now to bring him back to UK, I have applied for British Passport in Delhi, India. It normally takes 16weeks.

pravinuk · Post by **pravinuk** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 10:53 am

Jambo -
BTW - when you applied for an Indian passport, didn't you had to produce evidence that the child is not British? Or did just stating that he didn't apply for a British passport was enough?

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Thanks Jambo. If you are applying within a year of child's birth you do not need to produce any evidence re British citizenship. You will be declaring on the form that child has not applied for any other passport.

pravinuk · Post by **pravinuk** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 11:19 am

harshil223 wrote:I second to Jambo. Application must be made in the country where the child is present. I am in such process for my son who was born in the UK and then moved to India on Indian passport when his registration as British Citizen via form MN1 was in process. Now to bring him back to UK, I have applied for British Passport in Delhi, India. It normally takes 16weeks.

Thanks Harshil. I havent applied for MN1 so far. Do you think we need to apply for this? How long does it take?

Post by **Jambo** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 11:29 am

pravinuk wrote:Thanks Harshil. I havent applied for MN1 so far. Do you think we need to apply for this? How long does it take?

MN1 (registering a child as British) is not relevant in your case as your child was born after you held ILR and so is British from birth.

noble72uk · Post by **noble72uk** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:12 pm

pravinuk wrote:I will be grateful if someone help me out on following dilemma please. My son was born in the UK a month ago. Me and my wife hold ILR. We got Indian passport for my son so that we could travel to India immediately. For him to return back to the UK we will have to apply for dependent visa from India.
A friend of mine suggested - apply for british passport in the UK which we should get in 6 weeks then surrender his indian passport and apply for OCI. I assume applicant need not to be in the UK for this. If I send british passport + OCI to him in India - can he travel back to the UK? He wont have 'entry stamp' but can we get away by showing passport surrender certificate?
Not sure if I am making it too complicated. Looking at the other posts- applying for british citizenship from India seems very difficult and takes really long.
Thanks in advance

Hi There,

Uk passport in India takes longer.
as your son is already british by Birth, just apply for his British passport and ( surrender the Indian passport and apply for him an indian visa the same day). for more clarification contact the Indian embassy before engaging in any thing.

But just to remind you to get a UK passport while in India is not an easy step it takes longer.

Good luck

pravinuk · Post by **pravinuk** » Thu Sep 06, 2012 12:43 pm

noble72uk wrote: Hi There, Uk passport in India takes longer.
as your son is already british by Birth, just apply for his British passport and ( surrender the Indian passport and apply for him an indian visa the same day). for more clarification contact the Indian embassy before engaging in any thing.
But just to remind you to get a UK passport while in India is not an easy step it takes longer.

Good luck

Thanks noble72uk. I have checked with Passport and identitity service UK helpline- Application must be made in the country where the child is present.

pravinuk · Post by **pravinuk** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 1:20 pm

Hi Friends, its me again! I have realised that getting British passport from India takes more than 4 months. I am aware that I should have applied for British passport for my son whilst he was in the UK but due to urgent travel plans we took Indian passport and he went to India.
I am thinking of applying for UK visitor visa for him. Once he is in the UK we will apply for British passport. Both parents hold ILR and he was born in the UK hence he is definitely eligible for British passport. He will be traveling with mother who holds ILR.
Has anyone tried this route? Other visa types like settlement are very expensive. Will he need a return ticket to India for traveling on UK visitor visa.
Thanks in advance

Post by **Jambo** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 9:11 pm

Your child is a British citizen already. He just doesn't have a British travel document. A citizen can't really apply for a visa from his own country. The correct thing to do is apply for a British passport or a certificate of entitlement (RoA) in the Indian passport. Whether you might get away with a visitor visa (without the BHC realising the child is British) is unknown to me.

rajakumar1979 · Post by **rajakumar1979** » Mon Nov 19, 2012 12:49 pm

pravinuk wrote:Hi Friends, its me again! I have realised that getting British passport from India takes more than 4 months. I am aware that I should have applied for British passport for my son whilst he was in the UK but due to urgent travel plans we took Indian passport and he went to India.
I am thinking of applying for UK visitor visa for him. Once he is in the UK we will apply for British passport. Both parents hold ILR and he was born in the UK hence he is definitely eligible for British passport. He will be traveling with mother who holds ILR.
Has anyone tried this route? Other visa types like settlement are very expensive. Will he need a return ticket to India for traveling on UK visitor visa.
Thanks in advance

Hi Praveen,
I am also in similar situation. Could you please let me know whether you managed to get Visitor visa for your kid?

pravinuk · Post by **pravinuk** » Wed Nov 28, 2012 11:26 pm

Jambo wrote:Your child is a British citizen already. He just doesn't have a British travel document. A citizen can't really apply for a visa from his own country. The correct thing to do is apply for a British passport or a certificate of entitlement (RoA) in the Indian passport. Whether you might get away with a visitor visa (without the BHC realising the child is British) is unknown to me.

Thanks Jumbo. For my son I applied for a certificate of entitlement (RoA) in the Indian passport. I have ILR before his birth. However, they have rejected RoA application. The reply states- You applied under section 2(1)(b)(i) immigration act 1971. You were not a common wealth citizen and your father was not citizen of UK by birth at the time of birth of the child.

I looked again at the UKBA website which clearly states that you are a British citizen if at the time of your birth one of your parents was a British citizen; or legally settled in the UK.
I am not sure how to proceed from here. The wait for british passport from India is very long. Please help, any suggestions, any recommendation on solicitors in India.

aledeniz · Post by **aledeniz** » Wed Nov 28, 2012 11:54 pm

pravinuk wrote:I looked again at the UKBA website which clearly states that you are a British citizen if at the time of your birth one of your parents was a British citizen; or legally settled in the UK.

Yup. Even retroactively: a good friend of mine got a letter from the HO telling he had ILR from an earlier date from which he had known before (due someone unrelated winning a case for people on his very same migration scheme), I noticed that that date was well before the birth date of his kid, we called IND and they confirmed the kid was British citizen by birth, my friend had already paid £££ for the visa for the kid, so he asked, together with the kid's passport, a full refund, and they gave him that.

About the answer they gave you, I am by no means an expert, but I wonder if by any chance they mistook you for your son. And also, shouldn't you have applied for your son under section 2(1)(a)?

BTW, here is the policy guidance about ROA: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... /ecg/roa1/

Post by **geriatrix** » Thu Nov 29, 2012 4:24 am

Your child is a British citizen under section 1(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981.
The application for Certification of entitlement for right of abode should be made under section 2(1)(a) of the Immigration Act 1971.

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British citizenship for a child born in the UK