Hi all! I am just completing the last stages of the citizenship application for my kids and have some questions I'm hoping you can help with.
Some background: I am a British citizen by descent, my husband is non-EU, my kids are also non-EU and were born outside the UK. We have been living in the UK for nearly four years, so my kids are eligible for citizenship under MN1 Section 3(5). As they are children, this should mean that they end up with citizenship
not by descent. In other words, they should be able to pass on their citizen to their future children, unlike me who could not.
My questions for those in the know are these:
1. It appears that as long as the kids lived in the UK for any continuous period with both parents, that they are eligible to apply for citizenship prior to the age of 18 regardless of where they are actually living in the world. So, in theory, we could go back to their birth country and apply from there, even if we never came back to the UK?
2. This is an odd question about the form - on the checklist at the end it asks us to tick off that we have provided 'Evidence that [child's name]'s British parent lived in the UK for a period of 3 years at some time before [child's name]'s birth. Except, that isn't the category we chose to apply under. We chose 'Your parent is British by descent and you and your parents (unless they are legally separated) are now living in the UK or a British Overseas territory'. This feels like one of those HO glitches that catches us all up, but I'm worried that if I tick the box just to progress the paperwork and then provide info for the other category that it will be rejected.
3. There is a question about where the child intends to live once citizenship is granted. Is this a trick question? Are we supposed to pick the UK, or is it ok to say you intend to live elsewhere? Because Covid isn't exactly making these choices easy right now.
In a nutshell, am I correct in saying that once the kids have lived in the UK for three years they should be eligible for citizenship regardless of where they live, as long as they apply by the time they are 18?
Other than the hideous expense, this still feels too easy for the HO
