Cazwilkins Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 Hi all, I am getting myself in an absolute tiz because I have absolutely no clue what I am doing. My husband and I are both UK citizens and have been living in Australia for 5 years. We just had our first son back in November. He is automatically an Australian citizen. However, we would like him to have dual citizenship and so would like to get him a UK passport. He should be entitled to British citizenship by descent as he was born outside of the UK to parents who are UK citizens. The issue I have is knowing how to claim citizenship. We are planning to travel back to the UK in 2023 sometime (all being well re-covid) and the issue I have is that if we leave things as they are and only get him an Australian passport, we will have to apply for a visa for him to enter the UK as he currently is not recognised by the UK as being born. Is this correct? Whereas I assume it would be easier to travel with both an Australian and a UK passport so that we can leave and enter Australia with the Australian passport and enter/leave the UK with a UK passport. Is this correct? No matter what Google searches I do I cannot for the life of my fathom out how to go about this. I'm sure there are plenty of other parents who have gone through this and could help. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandpaGrumble Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 This seems to answer most of your questions: https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-british-parent/born-on-or-after-1-july-2006 As I read it, your son is already automatically a UK citizen, provided that either you or your husband were born or adopted in the UK, or were naturalized there. In which case you can just apply for his passport. You don't have to claim citizenship for him, though you can ask for a letter confirming it if you like (is my reading). Can't speak for the UK but our son is kiwi by descent. Arranging his passport and proof of citizenship was pretty straightforward. Seems to be more complicated and expensive, but not impossible, if neither you nor your husband meet those criteria, e.g. if you were both UK citizens by descent. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parley Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 3 hours ago, Cazwilkins said: Hi all, I am getting myself in an absolute tiz because I have absolutely no clue what I am doing. My husband and I are both UK citizens and have been living in Australia for 5 years. We just had our first son back in November. He is automatically an Australian citizen. However, we would like him to have dual citizenship and so would like to get him a UK passport. He should be entitled to British citizenship by descent as he was born outside of the UK to parents who are UK citizens. The issue I have is knowing how to claim citizenship. We are planning to travel back to the UK in 2023 sometime (all being well re-covid) and the issue I have is that if we leave things as they are and only get him an Australian passport, we will have to apply for a visa for him to enter the UK as he currently is not recognised by the UK as being born. Is this correct? Whereas I assume it would be easier to travel with both an Australian and a UK passport so that we can leave and enter Australia with the Australian passport and enter/leave the UK with a UK passport. Is this correct? No matter what Google searches I do I cannot for the life of my fathom out how to go about this. I'm sure there are plenty of other parents who have gone through this and could help. Thanks in advance. Assuming you were born in the UK there is absolutely no need to claim any citizenship for your child. He became a UK citizen automatically at his birth. There is no need for you to do anything but if you want a British passport for him just apply for one and provide the supporting documentation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickyNook Posted March 10, 2021 Share Posted March 10, 2021 As noted above, you just need to apply for a British passport for your son. It's exactly what we did for our sons and countless other parents have done for their children. However, if you travel to the UK with your son and he only has an Australian passport then you don't need to apply for any UK visa for him beforehand. Australians get automatic permission to stay for 6 months on arrival in the UK, no visa required. Obviously it is best for him to travel on two passports - and you do exactly as you outlined. Use the Australian one to exit and enter Australia and use the British one to enter and exit the UK. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazwilkins Posted March 10, 2021 Author Share Posted March 10, 2021 Thank you so much for your responses. This makes me feel much more at ease. I don't understand why I have found it so difficult to find this information. I seemed to enter a rabbit Warren of information on each government website and managed to confuse myself. I must admit it does not take an awful lot to confuse me these days! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cazwilkins Posted September 4, 2022 Author Share Posted September 4, 2022 Hey everyone. Thought I would update on what we did in the end. We travelled back to the UK for Christmas. It was all rather last minute. We travelled with his Australian passport and entered the UK with this. Whilst in the UK we booked a face to face appointment at the passport office in Liverpool. It didn't take long for his passport to arrive back in Australia although more than likely a different story nowadays 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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