What’s the difference between 'British by birth' and 'not British but can be registered as British'?
This usually relates to children, so we’ll start
from them.
British by
birth means the child
is British because of his/her family. It can be because of a parent being British,
or because of a parent who has an ILR and a has a child born in the UK (who
will be British by birth). In this case parents can just apply for a UK
passport (here meant as a ‘passport book’), in the same way as British parents
apply: sending documents to IPS (Identity and Passport Service), paying a
passport fee and getting a passport. Most British-born parents here would not
even think about anything else but simply applying for a UK passport (‘a
passport’) for their child, without even thinking how lucky the child is :o))
'Not British
but can be registered as British' means a
child is not a British citizen when he/she is born, so parents could not just
apply for a passport. However, in
certain circumstances they can register the child, ie submit
application form and pay some fee to the UK Border Agency, then wait for a
decision. Once decision has been made - and decision is positive - then parents
can apply for a UK passport for the child to IPS.
Here it is important to
understand that there are conditions to meet when registering a child as
British, it is not simply a choice to make a child a British citizen.
For example, an Indian
couple have a child born in the UK when one parent is on a Tier 2 visa and the
other is on a Dependant visa. The child is not British by birth. When one of
the parents (or both but one is sufficient) obtains an ILR, the child can be registered
as British at the UK Border Agency. A child cannot become British before that,
so an application for registration would be refused before at least one of the
parents secures an ILR.
If the same couple has a child
after one or both parents have an ILR, that child will be British by birth and
there is no need to register – just get a British passport.
Another example: before 1
July 2006 children born to British fathers were only British by birth if the
father was married to their mother. So,
if the parents were unmarried, and only a father was British (mother was
non-British), a child was not British at all. Now there is a provision to
register such children to become British citizens.
One more example: children
born in the UK who are not British by birth can also be registered as British after spending the first 10 years of
their lives in the UK.
Adults: some adult
people are British citizens because of their parents (or because they were born
in the UK before 1983) but they never applied for a UK passport, such as
because they lived outside the UK for all their lives. In this case a person
was British by birth and does not need register, he/she should apply for a UK
passport, which is possible to do from outside the UK, in many cases sending
their application to Liverpool.
Compare with this: before 1983
only men could pass their nationality to their children. So, those who were
born before 1983 to a British mother (but not to a British father) was not
British. Now there is a provision to register as a British citizen, ie to
submit an application to the UKBA, complete and form, pay a fee. There is also
a condition of being of good character as most applicants are now adults.
For
an individual advice or to make an application please contact us: info@1st4immigration.com or
visit www.1st4immigration.com
If
you are an Immigration Adviser or a Solicitor please visit our immigration
Training and CPD website: www.1st4immigration.com/training
