British father, German Mother, wanting child to be dual...

[beadle]

hi everyone,

Could anyone help me on the firsts steps to finding out how my daughter, who was born here in Germany this week, can gain dual citizenship? She will have a German passport, and she must also have a british one, too.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks,


Matt

[ppron747]

Congrats, Matt

You haven't actually said that you were born in UK. If you were, then your daughter is a British citizen by descent, whether you get a passport for her or not. And this will continue to be the case unless/until she reaches adulthood and chooses to renounce British citizenship "in the prescribed manner" which involves applying to do so at a British Consulate, and paying the fee for the renunciation to be registered by the Home Office.

I don't know the German government's attitude to dual nationality, but I would guess that she is safely German until she's an adult, at least. The British government has no objection to British citizens holding as many other citizenships as they wish, so she will never lose British citizenship without actually renouncing it.

So she is a dual national. I can't personally see any point in getting her a British passport at such an early age, but you might like to consider it later on. Her German passport doesn't, of course, prove that she's British, and to get proof, if proof be needed at some stage, you could get her a British passport.

You might also like to consider registering her birth with the British Consulate. It's pricey - just over £100, IIRC, but gives her a UK-style birth certificate showing her claim to British nationality, and further copies will always be obtainable either from the Consulate that does the registration or from the General Register Office in the UK. If you were in a somewhat less developed country, where replacement local documents can be difficult to obtain, I'd be pushing the British birth registration option rather more strongly, because it can be very useful indeed in dealings with UK schools, doctors, etc. But the fact is that, as an EU national, she's less likely to need to produce a UK birth certificate, so I'll confine myself to saying "you might like to think about it", rather than "you really should"...

Congrats again

[JAJ]

I don't know the German government's attitude to dual nationality, but I would guess that she is safely German until she's an adult, at least.

Where a person acquires German citizenship from a parent (as opposed to being born in Germany to foreign parents) there is no requirement to renounce any other citizenship held.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_nationality_law

You might also like to consider registering her birth with the British Consulate. It's pricey - just over £100, IIRC, but gives her a UK-style birth certificate showing her claim to British nationality, and further copies will always be obtainable either from the Consulate that does the registration or from the General Register Office in the UK. If you were in a somewhat less developed country, where replacement local documents can be difficult to obtain, I'd be pushing the British birth registration option rather more strongly, because it can be very useful indeed in dealings with UK schools, doctors, etc. But the fact is that, as an EU national, she's less likely to need to produce a UK birth certificate, so I'll confine myself to saying "you might like to think about it", rather than "you really should"...

I would concur with this, although it is worth noting that a consular birth certificate constitutes a lifetime proof of British nationality. Even where a person is born in a country with a good standard of local documentation, a consular birth certificate might make replacing a British passport a lot easier, especially if the passport was lost and might be needed in a hurry.

It should also avoid the need to obtain birth certificate translations in English speaking countries.

IMO the price of GBP100 is not unreasonable for the benefits it brings.