MN1 Help Please

[ts1greece]

Hi All from beautiful sunny Greece

I wonder if anyone is familiar with and can help with form MN1?

I am planning to register my Greek born Daughter as a british citizen. I am a british citizen by descent and lived in the UK for 30 years.

The questions I have are as follows:

Section 3.2
Please provide the above parents addresses in the UK for the reckonable 3 year period.
Do you think its better to provide my childhood home where i lived for 12 years or my adult home that I owned and lived for 10 years? or does this make no difference?

Section 3.3
Details of absences from UK.
I have no record of the holidays I took, my parents haven't kept their old passports and neither have I. Any ideas how on earth I begin to fill in this section?

Thank you for your time.

[geriatrix]

1. Question 3.2 - The address(es) you have lived at during the 3 years preceding the application.
2. Question 3.3 - It asks for details of absences in the 3 years preceding the application. If you do not have any records, the best you can do is put your memory to test.

[Jambo]

Are you planning to move back to the UK later in life? Does the child has any other nationality?

Are you aware of the differences between registering under section 3(2) and section 3(5)?

A child registered as a British citizen under this section will become a British citizen by descent. They will be unable to pass British citizenship on automatically to any of their children born outside the United Kingdom.

A child registered under section 3(5) of the British Nationality Act 1981 will become a British citizen otherwise than by descent and will be able to pass British citizenship on automatically to any of their children born outside the United Kingdom. If there is a possibility the child may return to live in the United Kingdom before they reach the age of 15, you should consider whether it would be in their best interests to apply under section 3(5) at a later date.

[ts1greece]

Hi
The child is currently a Greek national.
We are not planning to return to the UK at the moment, however I would prefer my daugther to be registered as a British Citizen.

I don't think section 3.5 applies to us as the other parent never lived in the UK?

[Jambo]

Section 3(5) would apply if the child lives in the UK for 3 years before he is 18. Doesn't matter what the other parent nationality is.

If you apply now under 3(2), the child will be British by decent (and can't transfer the British nationality to children born abroad). If the child moves to the UK and apply after 3 years of residence (under section 3(5)), the child will be British by other than decent (and can transfer to his children born abroad).

As a Greek nationality is also an EU one, maybe better to wait with the British nationality registration to a later date in case you will move back to the UK.

Just wanted to make sure you understand what the implications are of applying now under 3(2).

[ts1greece]

ah thank you, now I understand it.

My only worry is that I received advice from an immigration lawyer who said I should apply asap as they are reviewing the rules/laws on this at the moment. I'm worried that if we wait then she might end up not entitled to British citizenship at all?

[Jambo]

I'm not aware of any proposed changes that are currently under review in this area (and the legislation has been in place for around 30 years) although no one can predict what will happen in future.

Was the immigration lawyer specific on the proposed changes or maybe was he trying to convince you to use his services now before it would be too late?

[ts1greece]

yes it could well be the latter!

thank you so much for taking the time out to reply and more importantly making me aware of the difference 3(2) to 3(5) and the impact for her children, this could have been a big mistake.

I have some thinking to do.......