Gaining British citizenship

How can you write pro's with an apostrophe, and then write cons? It just doesn't make any sense :S

Dual citizenship for those kids is a great plan. Hopefully they don't have to answer all the stupid questions adults do.
 
D.P. said:
It doesn't affect them until they start earning a real salary. They can also denounce American citizenship at any time. I don't know the consequences of the latter, perhaps getting us citizenship and then denouncing it will block you from ever getting it again.

There are also double taxation rules that limits liability.
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There are exclusions on anything under about £70k and there is also a treaty so you don't get taxed twice. Just fill out a form at the U.S. Embassy, tick all the right box s, get the credits you're entitled to and job done. It's a PITA, but not really a big deal.

Denouncing US citizenship doesn't block you, it's another pita though to become a naturalised US citizen again.
 
Castiel said:
There are exclusions on anything under about £70k and there is also a treaty so you don't get taxed twice. Just fill out a form at the U.S. Embassy, tick all the right box s, get the credits you're entitled to and job done. It's a PITA, but not really a big deal.

Denouncing US citizenship doesn't block you, it's another pita though to become a naturalised US citizen again.
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Thanks. My quick research before indicated it wasn't at all an issue.
 
My lad has an american passport as the other half is from the US, but as I remember there was some rule about him having to have residency in the US for 18 months before he was 18 to gain full US citizenship.

The UK almost certainly has a different criteria. I know when we were looking at moving to the states 12 years ago there were a ridiculous amount of hoops to jump through for me to to even get a long term visa to the states. It took her 5 minutes in the Liverpool immigration centre to get her full UK citizenship after we were hitched.
 
My child will be born in Canada, to British parents (both of us). He/she can apply for a British passport after 18 years - that's as much research as I've done; as far as I'm aware he/she will be granted this, due to both the parents being British. I assume the same from the US.
 
danielanthony said:
If you get them American citizenship and move back to the UK, they will still have to pay US tax. The IRS levels taxes on American citizens no matter where they are in the world.

Not an immediate problem, but they will have to fill in tax returns once they reach a certain age, an admin ball ache apparently.
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Apparently it's also a massive pain if you want to register a bank account outside the US as well. Many banks won't touch you because of the paperwork involved since the U.S. changed procedures recently.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24135021
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24338387

I think from that unless you really need to be a US citizen (I.e. live in the US) then try and avoid it! :p
 
Hmmm;
I suspect my strife is fugitive then!
Lived in the UK since 2002 and never filed any tax returns whatsoever with the IRS. Had no issue gaining a UK bank account/social security or right to work etc.

Naughty girl!
 
danielanthony said:
If you get them American citizenship and move back to the UK, they will still have to pay US tax. The IRS levels taxes on American citizens no matter where they are in the world.

Not an immediate problem, but they will have to fill in tax returns once they reach a certain age, an admin ball ache apparently.
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My father is a Tax Manager. He had a client who was American but had lived in the UK for 25 years and was a UK citizen. It took him 20 years to denounce (not sure if that is the right word) his American citizenship and stop paying them taxes.

Seems becoming a UK citizen is easy, getting rid of being an American is the hard bit.
 
Amp34 said:
Apparently it's also a massive pain if you want to register a bank account outside the US as well. Many banks won't touch you because of the paperwork involved since the U.S. changed procedures recently.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24135021
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24338387

I think from that unless you really need to be a US citizen (I.e. live in the US) then try and avoid it! :p
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Add Boris Johnson to that list too. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31475945

It seems a real shame that they are twisting peoples hands in renouncing their citizenship.
 
An American colleague of mine has just transferred to Dubai from Ireland, although there are no local income taxes, he'll have to pay (15% I think) of his income over $90k USD. Sucks to be him as a couple of other guys over there from Ireland, as Irish citizens, don't need to worry about this global taxation nonsense.

He also said he has to let the IRS know every year what his income is and what taxes he's paid, sounds like a lot of hassle for little benefit as he has no intention of going back to the U.S. for the foreseeable future.
 
thedoc46 said:
Wife and i are both British. Born and bred.. It's just that we decided to jump ship and go live on the other side of the pond over 10yrs ago. So anyway, since then, we've had two kids..
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Yes, they'll be UK citizens. Something to beware, though, is that their own children may not automatically be UK citizens if they - your grandchildren - are born outside the UK.
 
-westy- said:
My child will be born in Canada, to British parents (both of us). He/she can apply for a British passport after 18 years - that's as much research as I've done; as far as I'm aware he/she will be granted this, due to both the parents being British. I assume the same from the US.
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Isn't that because Canada is part of the Commonwealth?
 
dirtychinchilla said:
How can you write pro's with an apostrophe, and then write cons? It just doesn't make any sense :S

Dual citizenship for those kids is a great plan. Hopefully they don't have to answer all the stupid questions adults do.
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They won't have to apply for citizenship just passports.

My son was born in Belgium so no problem for him to get full blown citizenship however from what I read his kids will have some sort of 2nd class version and their kids won't have any.

Belgium doesn't automatically give citizenship to people born in Belgium you have to apply like everyone else when you are 18 and there are strange cases here of British kids born in Belgium not getting accepted because they went to the UK for a gap year after school.

It's a minefield and if you have any doubts get them cleared up asap as things are about to get a lot worse.
 
Similar situation, our 2 kids were born in US and have US passport

Luckily my wife is German and we got them both German citizenship. What a godsend to be able to keep an EU passports, and already coming in handy as we get the **** out of the US and go back to Switzerland.

First step is ensure they have the US passport and all paperwork like birth certificate. Then just follow the UK passport application. Might need a trip to the UK embassy. Took us a few months to get sorted for first child. For the second we found out Germany had a special child passport with limited duration and limited functionality (not all countries will accept it) but it took a few weeks and was much cheaper.
 
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