Process to get a UK passport - born in UK but US citizens

I was born in the UK in 1970 while my parents were there during a period when my father was working on an art history dissertation. Both my father and mother are US citizens. My understanding is that I am able to get a UK passport based on being born in London.

Up until now, I haven't felt super compelled to try to get a passport, but with the looming possibility of a bad outcome in our US elections in November, I feel like now is the time to try. As a result, I researched what I needed, got my pictures, identified a UK citizens able to vouch for me, and went to newcomer link: https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/ [nonactive] to apply. However, when I followed the prompts I ended up with a series of questions about where my parents were born (in the US) and then where my grandparents were born (in the US) and felt like I must have done something wrong because none of that seemed relevant due to my birth in Lewisham in 1970.

Any guidance on what I'm doing wrong would be greatly appreciated!

I don’t think you have done anything wrong, just plough on through the questions.

My son got his first British passport at age 4 in readiness for us moving to the USA. We ended up staying in the USA and in 1997 let his passport expire as we didn’t expect to be returning to the UK.  He was born in November 1982 so was a British Citizen regardless of parents.  In 2016 he applied to have it renewed but because it had been expired over 10 years meant he had to apply from scratch and we helped him fill out the forms including getting him a certified copy of his British birth certificate, however we were surprised that he also had to complete sections on parents and grandparents, because we recall applying for his first passport in 1987 and were able to skip all those pages because of when he was born.

Thanks so much for the advice! Plowing through was in the back of my mind but it seemed so weird and a waste of time to collect the information. Will gather up grandparent birthplaces and proceed with fingers crossed!

Thanks so much for the advice! Plowing through was in the back of my mind but it seemed so weird and a waste of time to collect the information. Will gather up grandparent birthplaces and proceed with fingers crossed!

Please do report back on how it goes, and good luck.

I was born in the UK in 1970 while my parents were there during a period when my father was working on an art history dissertation. Both my father and mother are US citizens. My understanding is that I am able to get a UK passport based on being born in London.

Up until now, I haven't felt super compelled to try to get a passport, but with the looming possibility of a bad outcome in our US elections in November, I feel like now is the time to try. As a result, I researched what I needed, got my pictures, identified a UK citizens able to vouch for me, and went to https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/ to apply. However, when I followed the prompts I ended up with a series of questions about where my parents were born (in the US) and then where my grandparents were born (in the US) and felt like I must have done something wrong because none of that seemed relevant due to my birth in Lewisham in 1970.

Any guidance on what I'm doing wrong would be greatly appreciated!

I may be completely wrong but you may not be a British citizen just because you were born here.   You say both your parents were US citizens and also your grandparents.  To automatically be considered a British citizen at birth one of your parents would need to be British or have  “settled status”.   If they were just US citizens over here for a short time and not recognized as applying for or in a settled status, I don’t think you have a claim to British citizenship.

https://www.davidsonmorris.com/child-born-in-the-uk-to-non-british-parents/

I may be completely wrong but you may not be a British citizen just because you were born here.   You say both your parents were US citizens and also your grandparents.  To automatically be considered a British citizen at birth one of your parents would need to be British or have  “settled status”.   If they were just US citizens over here for a short time and not recognized as applying for or in a settled status, I don’t think you have a claim to British citizenship.

https://www.davidsonmorris.com/child-born-in-the-uk-to-non-british-parents/

It depends when you were born as to whether or not your parent(s) needed to be British/settled in the U.K.

As the OP was born in the U.K. before Jan 1st 1983, they are automatically British, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

However, if they had been born in the UK after Jan 1st 1983, they would not automatically be British.

The link you posted only actually refers to people born in the U.K. after 1st Jan 1983, whereas the OP was born in 1970 (also the link information has a typo: 1943 instead of 1983).

From the official UKVI website (https://www.gov.uk/check-british-citizenship/born-in-the-uk-or-a-british-colony-before-1-january-1983):




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I have returned to close the loop and announce that I have, in fact, received my British passport! Thank you for your guidance and support as I tried to figure this all out. I will say that the UK Passport office is significantly better organized and more communicative than that of the US. There was a strange question mid-way through that they made me answer as to why I wanted to get a UK Passport even though I was living in the US (I say "strange" because if I was living in the UK, I would already have a passport, presumably--especially since I'm a 53 year old applying for his first UK passport), but I answered and the answer seems to have been acceptable!

Haven't quite figured out my plans but am thrilled to have the option of returning to the land of my birth!

Congratulations!!