I need some clarification about my children's citizenship

[tegaclan]

I came to this country in 1976, my dad came to the UK as political refugee and those were the conditions my mother, myself and my brothers. entered the Uk. in 1980 my parents were granted indefinate leave to remain. I don't know how or why (maybe it was the language barrier) when they received their ILR myself and my brothers were not included. no one realised that this had ocurred till obviously years later. it was I think asumed that because we entered on my mother's passport that we had automatic ILR.

It took me from 1976 to 2009 to actually go through the whole process of becoming naturalised. that only came about because of the immigration laws changing and so I had to provide proof that I could work in this country. I didnt have anything and so I was suspended from my job in order to get my affairs in order.

In between all those yrs I have had 4 kids all born in the UK, their father being british born. my eldest is nearly 21, the next is coming up to 18 in september and I have 2 younger children 13 and 10. because I have never married their father they all by default took my nationality (Chilean)

what I want to know is how is it that someone who is a foreigner to this country but holding an ILR can override a british born father. We tried for yrs to get passports for our daughters stating that their father was british but to no avail, we received knockback after knockback from the Home office about this fact and they didnt even bother to tell us what steps to take to be able to get our kids passports.

I have waited years to be able to clear this up for our daughters. I realise that I could have sorted it out when I was in the process of getting naturalised but could not because my job was on the line and it would have complicated my application. whist dealing with this I enquired with the person who was handling my case about my daughters and he advised me to complete forms MN1 for the 17/13/10 yr old and form AN for the eldest although now I realise that she should probably fill in form T.

can anyone clarify if I am taking the correct steps? It has taken me 3 yrs to save the £2000 I roughly need to pay for it all and I don't really want to lose this money.


to this day I don't know how I actually got my citizenship bearing in mind that I didnt have ILR or maybe I did and just didn't have the paperwork in which case I wouldn't need to pay this money at all. I wrote to the Home Office regarding this (Twice) but they never got back to me.

Appreciate any feedback.

[JAJ]

Unmarried father did not count as a "parent" for nationality purposes before July 2006. However, starting around the year 2000, they could have been registered British based on an unmarried British father, as long as application was made before age 18 - obviously no-one ever told you that.

Also - if you had had ILR when the children were born, they would have been British automatically - but based on what you're telling us, they didn't have that. If you now have a Certificate of Naturalisation then don't worry about the ILR question.

In any case, now that you are a British citizen, the three youngest (under 18 ) can be registered as British under section 1( 3 ) of the 1981 Act, assuming they are U.K. born. Use form MN1. For the older one, Form T, for section 1(4) registration, is the most obvious option.

Will they keep their Chilean citizenship if they become British citizens, and is this important?

[tegaclan]

Thank you vey much for your reply. I have an interview with NCS on thursday To register my children that are under 18. As for the older one we couldn't decide which application to submit. My daughter took the citizenship test anyway in case she had to submit AN. Based on what I've read on these boards and what you have said I will submit Form T.
I have already comfirmed it with my consulate and we are allowed to keep our Chilean citizenship, which I more than happy about.
It's a real shame I did not find these boards sooner. I cannot begin to tell you what a nightmare this has been for me all these years.
Thanks again.