Dual Citizenship for UK Born Babies

Punktlich2 is a lawyer I believe. So I think, probably, he/she is speaking more from a point of almost the philosophical (I bet there is a better Latin term or something) mixed with personal experience. This sort of dialogue is often not so much concerned with the obvious, or the actual.

So instead of, "Police can search your car without permission" you get more of a, "Well, a point could be argued that if a tree had fallen on the car and rendered the doors unworkable then they couldn't break the windows to get in". This would then be followed up with, "Yes I believe in Cranston v. Filibusterson the tow truck driver had inadvertently welded the door shut".

English/American case law is sort of built up on little fringe occurrences, the exceptions, thoughts of how things link up in differing circumstance - unlike the Continental system which starts from a point of codification.

Given my above example regarding search, the simple answer is that you shouldn't have anything illegal in your car and so you are free to stand back and say, "Search away". Lawyers have to noodle around with the, "Yes, but...".

Given my above example regarding search, the simple answer is that you shouldn't have anything illegal in your car and so you are free to stand back and say, "Search away". Lawyers have to noodle around with the, "Yes, but...".

Should you be so naive and credulous as to volunteer a search of your car to officialdom, you may find that, without any apparent (or any Constitutional) justification, your money -- and perhaps your car -- are seized. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/opinion/civil-forfeiture-and-accountability.html

The professional criminal and his assets are safe until and unless they have him dead to rights. The average, innocent citizen is not. Do not assume that a policeman will be nicer, a prosecutor more generous, to you because you didn't insist they get a warrant.

And maybe it was just a burned-out taillight bulb on your rental car. Or you were road-testing your brother's Maserati.

You can fail a drug test because you just ate a poppyseed bagel. http://www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/poppyseed.asp They say that if you have poppyseeds on the bottom of your shoe you can be arrested in Dubai. Apparently you can: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/khas-khas-poppy-seed-warning.shtml

I believe Shandy uses a CRBA to enter the US from Canada with her children.  And she's never mentioned having an issue with police and social services.  To imply one would have a problem with a completely legal route to enter the US is absurd.

Yes, and a friend of mine, many years ago, used to walk from the Canadian side of his factory to the U.S. side over a walkway. Goods and materials had to be loaded on trucks and brought through Customs.

Neither anecdote proves anything. I am used to having my advice ignored. One day in 1980 an Iranian contact told me he was going to apply for a visa to visit the USA. I told him: "Whatever you do, do not lie about anything to the consular officer."

A month or so later he came back and said he'd been refused, what should he do now? It turned out he'd lied about something (perhaps about a prior refusal; that was before the Internet and communications were mostly via Telex). He insisted that his lawyer had advised him to "shade the truth" so it was't his fault. I advised him to get a visa for Canada and meet his wife there. Or wave to her across the border.

My advice, when not paid for, may be without value. Or maybe not.

No listen this is not at all completely esoteric....the Amanda Knox trail(s). 

You are an American, you are in a foreign country where you don't really understand the law or the language. You are approached....something has been found...someone has been hurt....where have you been...can we have a swab....

What exactly are your rights? At what point can you ask for legal assistance?

My guess (and that was 1999) is that it was a matter of state law. Anyway we couldn't be reached but the mother of the other girl could. We should have given her a letter of consent. My bad.

So that has nothing to do with the correct statement that a US citizen under the age of 16 can enter the US from Canada or Mexico without a passport and without being worried about social services or the police being called.

No listen this is not at all completely esoteric....the Amanda Knox trail(s). 

You are an American, you are in a foreign country where you don't really understand the law or the language. You are approached....something has been found...someone has been hurt....where have you been...can we have a swab....

What exactly are your rights? At what point can you ask for legal assistance?

In some countries you have no rights. In two that I know of, China and Belarus, you don't even have the right to know what the law is. (Hey, I was doing a survey of the Belarus National Library and I asked my guide, the International Materials Librarian, why certain copies of the secondary Official Gazette were missing from the shelf, their volume numbers skipped. She explained. That may be all you need to know about Alexander Lukashenko.

Abroad, as in the USA and the UK, "Nul n'est censé ignorer la loi": Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Even when the "law is an ass".

My advice: if relevant "just pay the man the $2" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697156/

I could list many anecdotes from life. Here's one. One is aboard a tram in Warsaw and the inspector declares that you have an invalid ticket. A £20 fine. Of course if you don't insist on a receipt, then £10 will do. (I was reminded of that story today when the bus inspector checked my Freedom Pass on the 137 bus. He didn't even bother to swipe it on his machine, they never do for those passes.)

The point of a tourist guidebook is to save you from pitfalls and scams. I was at Syntagma Square waiting for a bus to the airport when some local guy, who claimed to have lived many years in Manchester, stopped me and picked a friendly argument (about the US intervention in Serbia, a current issue, although it could have been everything). I was on the point of accepting his invitation to go to a bar for a beer when I remembered something: that's an old scam at that square, where a clutch of pretty girls will show up, the bartender will serve them, and you have to pay or go to jail. 

So that has nothing to do with the correct statement that a US citizen under the age of 16 can enter the US from Canada or Mexico without a passport and without being worried about social services or the police being called.

Why are you wasting your, and my time? You know, and I have been reminded, that an under-16 may enter the US with certain documents. My point was that in my very humble opinion a Certification of Birth Abroad oughtn't to be carried around so carelessly. Somewhere on this Web site I think I posted a link to a scan of the Jewish Marriage Certificate issued upon marriage by Jewish practice under the Marriage Act 1949. Here it is again: Scan of Jewish Marriage Certificate (England & Wales)

It is, as a practical matter at least difficult and maybe impossible to get a duplicate. And the Register Office won't have the record until the synagogue marriage book is filled, after 20 marriages. Which could take decades (really!)

Do you think one ought to carry around that certificate just in the case some hotelier won't let you rent a room together? For example.

How exactly is it wasting your time? You stated something incorrect, which you never acknowledged actually, and I corrected you, as did others. For someone who was quite insistent that incorrect information should be corrected, I find it curious that you find my clarification 'wasting your time'.

Exactly who wouldn't allow who to rent a room together? Bringing up esoteric examples of things that rarely happen to anyone is not helping your case and probably merely serves to confuse others.

How exactly is it wasting your time? You stated something incorrect, which you never acknowledged actually, and I corrected you, as did others. For someone who was quite insistent that incorrect information should be corrected, I find it curious that you find my clarification 'wasting your time'.

Exactly who wouldn't allow who to rent a room together? Bringing up esoteric examples of things that rarely happen to anyone is not helping your case and probably merely serves to confuse others.

You are wasting my time by harping on irrelevances. You want to be apologised to? You really think it's a good idea to take advantage of a get-out clause that exists to help parents who are in an unexpected muddle at the US border when they ought to have a passport book or passport card? You are simply telling me this is not a place where I ought to be spending any time.

I will give you one bit of free advice (as someone who once interned at the Legal Aid Society): Read these links, or some of them.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22am%20i%20free%20to%20leave%22

Have a great day!

Reply if you like, but I'm afraid I won't see it.

Perhaps you've finally realized that you shouldn't be speaking out of both sides of your mouth. And I don't know if there are that many posters on here who would be terribly sad if you didn't spend more time here, although you have provided some amusement. Your posts have not actually been helpful, which is one of the goals of this forum. In my opinion, your posts are filled with irrelevant stories, name dropping to try to impress people with your experience and pedigree, and ramblings that serve only to confuse readers. But don't worry, you won't be reading this anyway. Sure.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that if you renounce your US citizenship prior to any children being born then you won't pass US citizenship on to them. So that would be one way around it Larissa, but obviously you'd have to go through the cost and hassle of renouncing.

I believe you're correct!  Or least it makes logic and sense and all that.

For me, it's not the cost and hassle of renouncing.  I'm American.  I was born there, raised there, and I feel American in a lot of ways.  I don't plan to move back and can have a bit of a love / hate relationship at times but I identify as American.

Any hypothetical child may not, especially if they aren't raised there and rarely, if ever, go to visit.  However, I don't wish to pass my tax burden on to a child who has never lived there, might not have ever stepped foot on US soil, and may not identify as American.  For my family, especially with a family business on my DH's side, and a newer but still over the tax threshold business as well, the tax situation is a very real one.  Nothing says I love you like burdening a child with a tax problem for life before they are born...assuming they chose to take up either business but that's a whole other set of saddling a hypothetical child with problems situation

Other options, explore Jimmy Carr like loopholes.  Kidding!!