Child born in the US to British Mother

Hello all. Longtime member, mostly a lurker as i'm back in the US. I have a question for a friend that I hope someone here might be able to answer. My friend is British and lives here in the US with her American husband. They have 2 childern that have never been registered. I've been trying to find out the steps involved for her to get them registered as British citizens, but seem to find a ton of info that doesn't always make sense. Has anyone gone through this before moving to the UK that can provide some guidance?

Thanks so much!

Hello all. Longtime member, mostly a lurker as i'm back in the US. I have a question for a friend that I hope someone here might be able to answer. My friend is British and lives here in the US with her American husband. They have 2 childern that have never been registered. I've been trying to find out the steps involved for her to get them registered as British citizens, but seem to find a ton of info that doesn't always make sense. Has anyone gone through this before moving to the UK that can provide some guidance?

Thanks so much!

Was your friend born in the UK to British parents (meaning she is a UK citizen otherwise than by descent) or was she born outside the UK to British parents (meaning she is a UK citizen by descent)?

If she was born in the UK to British parents:
... then her US-born children will have automatically become UK citizens on the day they were born... therefore they do not need to be registered as British, and your friend can simply apply for their UK passports:
https://www.gov.uk/overseas-passports

If she was born outside the UK to British parents:
...  then her children will not automatically be UK citizens, because UK citizenship only passes down to one generation born abroad. However, the children may be able to register as British citizens  (which costs about £1,100 per child) under Section 3(2), providing they meet all of the following criteria:

- the children were born outside the UK
AND
- their mother was British by descent at the time the children were born
AND
- their mother’s parent(s) became British citizens otherwise than by descent either when the mother was born or on 1st Jan 1983
AND
- The mother  must have lived in the UK (or, if the child was born on or after 21 May 2002, in a qualifying British overseas territory) for a continuous period of 3 years at any time before the child’s birth. During that period they should not have absences exceeding 270 days. The application must be made whilst the child is under 18 years of age.

See here for how to apply to register the children as British using form MN1:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/register-child-under-18-as-british-citizen-form-mn1
and the guidance:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1127223/Guide_MN1__Jan_2023_.pdf

Thank you so much for the reply. She was born in the UK to British parents. She is 100% British as is her whole family. I'll look into the link. Everything I searched was rather confusing.