I'm pretty sure my birth was not registered at the British consulate in the US. When are these Borders, Citizenship and Immigration laws going to change? Will it cost me to register as a British citizen? How long do you have to live in a country to automatically become a citizen? I will just carry my old passport when traveling abroad (which isn't very often). Do you think I could ever be deported?
I agree with Victoria on the deportation question...
I know my birth wasn't registered at a British consulate, but it wouldn't make any difference in our situation since our British parents are women and we were born at the wrong time!
No one knows for sure when the changes are going to come, but most likely by December of 2010 at the latest...but the bill is still in the House of Lords and has to go through the Commons yet and then probably back to Lords, so it could be a while.
I finally found the registration fees, as they stand now - £460, which is better than £720 for naturalisation, and if you're not in a hurry, why naturalise? You're an unrecognised British citizen.
As far as the UK is concerned - and probably the US too - there is no such thing as living there long enough to 'automatically' become a citizen - you're either born one or must acquire it in some way. In our situation, it's either wait for the law to change and 'acquire' by registration, or 'acquire' by naturalisation.
Definitely carry that old passport...then the only questions you'll get should be 'why don't you pay a fee to have the ILR transferred into your new passport?' but it's perfectly acceptable to carry the expired passport...I'm sure there are at least a few people on these boards who do that exact thing...
