Citizenship help

You could use a deceased person as your 'father'. It would only be illegal if they found out... ;)
 
You are in a truly unenviable situation! I find it hard to conceive, no pun intended, that your mum doesn't know who your father is however.

Having said that I'm pretty sure that the only option left is to apply for citizenship here due to you having lived here for an extended period and being an eu citizen. I'm not sure of any costs involved though.

If you want, I'll adopt you as a brother! :D that might help!
 
Like I said, I considered naturalisation which I know I'm entitled to apply for but the fees are best part of £1000 and it'll take 6 months.
 
Dim question but why do you want both a British and German passport? Not sure what the rules are on having 2 EU passports, some places make you relinquish the original one (France don't let you have two or something)

Shouldn't you just reapply for a British one as you should really be entitled to one, probably...
 
Both the UK and Germany allow dual nationality. It's not an issue.

As for the UK Passport Agency, they're a law unto themselves.
 
Look for immigration lawyers, most do citzenship as well, some offer 30-60 minutes free advice.
British Citizenship and Nationality is a nightmare, had a friend some years ago in a similar situation, took ages to sort.
 
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Nightglow said:
Look for immigration lawyers, most do citzenship as well, some offer 30-60 minutes free advice.
British Citizenship and Nationality is a nightmare, had a friend some years ago in a similar situation, took ages to sort.
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Any in particular I should look at?
 
It used to be the case that you get permanent residency after 5 years (having eu passport kinda negates that) but after 7 or 10 (I forget) you could get neutralised. No idea how much that cost but you have to involve a lawyer of some form. Was in my teens when that happened so can't remember much about that I am afraid.

UK allows you to hold many passports but when you go to the countries those passports are from, you are not a British citizen there, you are counted as one of their citizens. I think that was the only important bit I remember from that. Either way British passport rocks when travelling abroad in any place I would be interested in going xD.

But surely since you lived and worked in UK for so long, it shouldn't be a problem to start the naturalisation process. You might have to do the citizenship test though which costs a bomb, a guy at work did his (took him 3 tries and he got permanent leave to remain, he went to work elsewhere xD)
 
rsatd said:
It used to be the case that you get permanent residency after 5 years (having eu passport kinda negates that) but after 7 or 10 (I forget) you could get neutralised.... SNIP
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OMG!!! :D

Tracking down your father's name would be a good start, and is the clearest option.

I wouldn't be getting advice from the UKPA though, they only issue Passports, they won't care about that sort of thing. You want to be looking at Immigration websites and things like that.

Were you born in the UK? (sorry if I missed that)
 
You're following rules to apply for British citizenship as a child, you're no longer a child and them rules don't apply. Annoyingly reading this document, and following the chart on page 11, you would have been entitled to register as a British citizen before you turned 18 by the living here for 10 years rule. Everything you're following with the parents rule etc is void, and that's simply because you're no longer defined as a child and the reason the passport may have been declined was because you had no certificate of UK registration or naturalisation.

Now as an adult the situation is a whole lot more difficult, if you look at the document on the bottom page you'll see a chart which leads to only one thing...that being applying for naturalisation.

There is contact information on that form, maybe you can get some help but they'll go the book and only by the book usually.
 
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Scougar said:
OMG!!! :D

Tracking down your father's name would be a good start, and is the clearest option.

Were you born in the UK? (sorry if I missed that)
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Tracking down my father isn't an option and yes I was born in the UK.

spacedskunk said:
You're following rules to apply for British citizenship as a child, you're no longer a child and them rules don't apply. Annoyingly reading this document, and following the chart on page 11, you would have been entitled to register as a British citizen before you turned 18 by the living here for 10 years rule. Everything you're following with the parents rule etc is void, and that's simply because you're no longer defined as a child and the reason the passport may have been declined was because you had no certificate of UK registration or naturalisation.

Now as an adult the situation is a whole lot more difficult, if you look at the document on the bottom page you'll see a chart which leads to only one thing...that being applying for naturalisation.

There is contact information on that form, maybe you can get some help but they'll go the book and only by the book usually.
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If you look at the document, the next bit says "Has the person lived in the United Kingdom for the first ten years of his or her life? ", which is the case so I can register at any point.

The options I seems to have:

  1. Prove that my mum was settled here at birth (somehow) at which point I am already a citizen. Cost: no fees but possible legal expenses
  2. Registration of citizenship as I was born here and lived here the fist decade of my life. Cost: £631
  3. Naturalisation. Most hassle but ultimately a fall back option. Cost: ~£1000

I obviously want to spend as little as I can, so I'll probably work through the options.
 
I think regardless of tracking down proof of your mothers whereabouts you're at least looking at the registration fee mate assuming you're registered as a German citizen?
 
spacedskunk said:
I think regardless of tracking down proof of your mothers whereabouts you're at least looking at the registration fee mate assuming you're registered as a German citizen?
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Not necessarily, but that all comes down to what proof the authorities require, which I'm not clear on yet.
 
Option one is viable, but for supporting documents to apply for your first adult British passport you need to provide either evidence of one of your parents' claims to British nationality or evidence of their immigration status. You only need to prove your mothers', but looking at what you need to apply it has to be your mothers passport at the time of your birth and that may be long gone.

The only time you don't have to provide support documents relating to parents is if you have a certificate of registration or naturalisation.

To make my source clear I have a just applied to renew my passport so reading all this from the support guide the application come with.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
The options I seems to have:

  1. Prove that my mum was settled here at birth (somehow) at which point I am already a citizen. Cost: no fees but possible legal expenses
  2. Registration of citizenship as I was born here and lived here the fist decade of my life. Cost: £631
  3. Naturalisation. Most hassle but ultimately a fall back option. Cost: ~£1000

I obviously want to spend as little as I can, so I'll probably work through the options.
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Could you not track down the electoral role for the area in which your mother lived when you were born? If she was registered at the time of the birth you could use that to prove that she was settled here?

See http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voter-registration - EU Citizens are entitled to register to vote in elections, so it's possible that she may have done so?
 
rsatd said:
UK allows you to hold many passports but when you go to the countries those passports are from, you are not a British citizen there, you are counted as one of their citizens.
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AFAIK, and this depends on the Country, but when entering a Country you hold a passport for, you are treated as a citizen of whichever country the passport you use to enter with is from.

In documentation I received from the UKBA, they mention a story about some poor guy who was from one of those countries with mandatory military service, but his family moved to the UK when he was young so had dual citizenship. He went back to visit family and used his home country passport.
He was detained at the airport and put right into military service. Had he used his UK passport to enter the country however, they'd have had to treat him like a UK citizen and would have been free to enter and leave.
 
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