309/100 Separate application for kids?

[AliG]

Hi All,

Wondering if anyone has come across either of these dilemmas before:

 

1. JOINT OR SEPARATE APPLICATIONS FOR DAD / KIDS

My wife is Australian and I am a UK citizen. We have lived together in UK since we met in 2008, we married in 2013, and have since had 2 kids (born in UK with UK passports only).

- I'd hope a spouse visa shouldn't be a problem for me (been married a while, I'm healthy, no police record, professionally educated etc). Processing time showing as 18 months (75%)

- I'd hope the kids shouldn't have a problem getting citizenship by birth (given their mum is Australian). Processing time is currently shown as 5 months (75%)

- Does a joint app become more complicated or take longer?

options I can see are:

(a) Kids and I all apply together under a single 309/100 visa application with both me and the kids named as applicants.

(b) I could do my own 300/100 spouse visa app, with my wife doing separate citizenship apps for the kids at the same time - presume we'd need to declare this on each app somehow. A bit worried this could get messy?

(C) We could do the kids application first and wait until granted before lodging my application. This would avoid confusion, but delays me starting my application while we wait for the kids.

 

2. OTHER CITIZENSHIP

One of the questions for my wife is whether she has citizenship of any other countries. She has applied for but not yet granted UK citizenship (by ancestry). Im hoping we can tick the no box for now but change it at a later date if necessary - unless the answer gets locked in? I wondered whether to include some commentary in the bit about future plans ie we want to get to a point where all of the family unit have both UK and Australian citizenship. Does that sound like a good approach?

 

Any info on experiences of others would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Ali

[Jon the Hat]

Hi Ali

The citizenship by descent process for your children is pretty simple, and it gets them dual citizenship straight away.  Why wouldn't you do that?  Putting them on your Visa will only get then PR and mean you have further applications to do later on.  I never even considered putting the kids on my 309/100 application. 

I used the kids citizenship in my evidence of our commitment to each other and to move to Australia when they came through.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Jon the Hat

[AliG]

4 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Hi Ali

The citizenship by descent process for your children is pretty simple, and it gets them dual citizenship straight away.  Why wouldn't you do that?  Putting them on your Visa will only get then PR and mean you have further applications to do later on.  I never even considered putting the kids on my 309/100 application. 

I used the kids citizenship in my evidence of our commitment to each other and to move to Australia when they came through.

Thanks - the only reason i was considering anything else was that is says 75% of citizenship by descent applications granted in 5 months  - if i wait until kids have citizenship it'll delay my application by however long it takes... but what im hearing is that is still likely to be quicker / cheaper /simpler to do it that way than combing kids with me - fingers crossed for a quick turnaround...!

[Jon the Hat]

5 minutes ago, AliG said:

Thanks - the only reason i was considering anything else was that is says 75% of citizenship by descent applications granted in 5 months  - if i wait until kids have citizenship it'll delay my application by however long it takes... but what im hearing is that is still likely to be quicker / cheaper /simpler to do it that way than combing kids with me - fingers crossed for a quick turnaround...!

There is no need to wait, I did mine at the same time.  You can add the evidence of their citizenship to your application in your immi account later if you decide to add that.  The kids citizenship has no bearing on your application really.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Jon the Hat

[AliG]

1 minute ago, Jon the Hat said:

There is no need to wait, I did mine at the same time.  You can add the evidence of their citizenship to your application in your immi account later if you decide to add that.  The kids citizenship has no bearing on your application really.

Ahh, ok - that sounds good!... I hope you don't mind if i ask a couple of follow up questions:

- Did you mention your kids in you 309 visa app - i think it asks if you have anyone else in the family unit and what their Aus immigration status is- do you just put 'other' initially and then change later as and when they get citizenship? 

- From what you are saying I presume its not a problem for the Australian parent to have 2 ongoing visa processes at the same time. I think there are 2 options for them to input their sponsor info - via your account or via their own: im not sure if it'll matter but which way did you do it?

Thanks again for taking time to answer...

Ali

[paulhand]

6 minutes ago, AliG said:

Did you mention your kids in you 309 visa app - i think it asks if you have anyone else in the family unit and what their Aus immigration status is- do you just put 'other' initially and then change later as and when they get citizenship? 

Yes - you need to include the kids at the appropriate point in the application form. You can then provide an update when the citizenship is approved

9 minutes ago, AliG said:

From what you are saying I presume its not a problem for the Australian parent to have 2 ongoing visa processes at the same time. I think there are 2 options for them to input their sponsor info - via your account or via their own: im not sure if it'll matter but which way did you do it?

 

It's only one visa process (and two citizenship applications) and no it's not an issue. You can use either account for the sponsorship application.

[AliG]

2 minutes ago, paulhand said:

Yes - you need to include the kids at the appropriate point in the application form. You can then provide an update when the citizenship is approved

It's only one visa process (and two citizenship applications) and no it's not an issue. You can use either account for the sponsorship application.

Thanks so much - this will let us crack on without delay!

[Jon the Hat]

43 minutes ago, paulhand said:

Yes - you need to include the kids at the appropriate point in the application form. You can then provide an update when the citizenship is approved

It's only one visa process (and two citizenship applications) and no it's not an issue. You can use either account for the sponsorship application.

I did exactly this and it all went very smoothly.