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I have an older brother who is an Indian citizen and our parents are both British Citizens by descent. My parents have lived in the UK for the last 15 years, but my brother was born outside the UK and is now 25 years old.

Is he eligible for registration as a British Citizen?

Thanks in advance!

So you brother has been living in the UK since he was 10? What has his immigration status been for the past 15 years?

As he is over 18 and apparently wasn't registered while he was still a minor (see page four of the linked document), I think he will have to naturalise using form AN.

Tea_Rocket wrote:So you brother has been living in the UK since he was 10? What has his immigration status been for the past 15 years?

As he is over 18 and apparently wasn't registered while he was still a minor (see page four of the linked document), I think he will have to naturalise using form AN.

No, my brother right now is living in India and has never been to the UK. He does have very strong ties to the UK where all our family members are living in England and he's living by himself with no family support. His education and everything is also funded by my parents so he's still a dependent.

Registration is typically done only for people under the age of 18 (minors). Had the parents registered him before he turned 18 (under Section 3(5) of the BNA 1981), he would have been a British citizen.

The only life-long entitlement to registration that I know of are for people born in the UK and resident in the UK for the first ten years of their lives and people whose parents were British citizens otherwise than by descent who could not pass on their citizenship (either because mothers could not (before 1983) or because their British father was not married to their non-British mother (before 2006)).

He would have to get the appropriate PBS visa or one as the spouse of a British citizen and naturalise in the usual way.

pixelrage09 wrote:No, my brother right now is living in India and has never been to the UK. He does have very strong ties to the UK where all our family members are living in England and he's living by himself with no family support. His education and everything is also funded by my parents so he's still a dependent.

I'm afraid that since your parents are both British by descent and your brother was not born in the UK (and has not been living here), he has no easy route to UK citizenship. He will have to come across on a visa (and unfortunately, it doesn't look like he qualifies for a family visa, since he is over 18 and you haven't mentioned him needing long-term care due to illness or disability), get indefinite leave to remain, and naturalise.

Parents are British by descent- so was one of the grandparents born in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man? (as distinct from naturalised, or acquiring British citizenship some other way). Indian citizens with a U.K. born grandparent are entitled to apply for the ancestry visa.
https://www.gov.uk/ancestry-visa

JAJ wrote:Parents are British by descent- so was one of the grandparents born in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man? (as distinct from naturalised, or acquiring British citizenship some other way). Indian citizens with a U.K. born grandparent are entitled to apply for the ancestry visa.
https://www.gov.uk/ancestry-visa

Grandfather was born in Penang (British territory at the time), but later acquired BC through naturalization in the UK. Does that mean there's no possible way for citizenship through double descent?

British law generally stops citizenship at one generation outside the UK. Citizenship by double descent may occasionally occur, but it typically occurred before 1983, is pretty rare and requires all the generations to be born in British colonies at the time of the respective births.

Were your parents born before or after your grandfather naturalised? Where were they born?

Where and when was your brother born?

Again, we can explore the options, but given his age, I would say that it would be impossible for him to claim citizenship by descent.

On a point of interest, how did you get your British citizenship (assuming that you are a citizen)?