MotherOfOne wrote:Hi Thanks for replying,
My baby girl was born October 2007 and is registered in Anguilla, however she in not Anguillan even though she is entitled by virtue of her Grandfather being Anguillan. She is being naturalized as an Anguillan which will take 3-8months before we will receive a reply.
Do you mean there is an application for her to be registered as a British Overseas Territories citizen?
Her Father was born in the UK to a Jamaican mother and an Anguillan Father (So he is british by birth). We are not married hence the reason I am not sure as to whether she is entitled to British Citizenship or not. He was told at the immigration department that she is British, however I am being told here in Anguilla that because we are not married they cannot issue a British passport for her.
However, they then tell us that she can be registered as a British Citizen and gave us the form to complete. So right now I am really confused.
The Anguilla authorities
are wrong. It is quite a concern when they appear not to know about the change in the law (on British nationality) on unmarried fathers which took effect on 1 July 2006.
Basically, since then, an unmarried father is considered to be the "father" as long as he is named on the birth certificate.
The reference is in Annex F to Chapter 6 of the Home Office Nationality Instructions:
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... ichapter6/
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22.2 In relation to a person born on or after 1 July 2006,
• the mother is the woman who gives birth to the child, and
•
the father is either
(a) the mother’s husband, if any, at the time of the child’s birth,
(b) any person who is treated as the father under s.28 of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 (see Volume 2, SURROGACY), or
(c) (if neither of the above applies), a person who is proven to be the father by the production of either (i) a birth certificate identifying him as such, and issued by the competent registration authority within 12 months of the birth of the child to which it relates or (ii) such other evidence (eg a DNA test report or court order) as may satisfy the Secretary of State in this point.
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So your daughter is
already a British citizen and cannot be naturalised or registered as such.
You need to go back to the Anguilla Passport Office and insist on speaking to someone who knows the law. If they have got a problem understanding it, they need to get some additional information from the Foreign Office or the Home Office back in the United Kingdom.
The same change in the law applies to BOTC, so if her father is BOTC then she is too.
