A person born in the UK is eligible for British Citizenship if they have a parent who is a citizen of the UK.
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In general, a person will be eligible for British citizenship if they are born in the UK and have a parent with British citizenship. However, the exact rules that apply to UK citizenship by birth (i.e. British Citizenship for children born in UK) depend on the circumstances of their parents at that time and whether they were born:
A person may be eligible to apply for British citizenship by birth (i.e. for a baby born in the UK to gain Citizenship) if they were born in the UK on or after 1st January 1983 and:
In most cases, a person who is eligible to be a UK citizen will automatically be British by birth if:
The Home Office rules state that a person is automatically considered a UK citizen by birth if they were born in the UK prior to 1st January 1983. There are two very limited exceptions to this. A person is not a British citizen by birth if they were born before 1983 if their father was:
Yes, a person can gain ‘British citizenship by descent’ from a person with British citizenship ‘otherwise than by descent’. This is because a person with British citizenship ‘otherwise than by descent’ is allowed to pass their citizenship down a maximum of one generation if their children are born outside the UK.
A person is typically classed as a British citizen otherwise than by descent if they were born, adopted, naturalised, or registered in the UK or a qualifying territory. This also means that a child who has British Citizenship by descent cannot, themselves, pass their Citizenship down to a child born outside the UK.
If you have a child who was automatically classified as a UK citizen by birth, there is nothing more you need to do, and if you wish, you can apply for a British passport on their behalf.
If they are not automatically classified as a British citizen by birth, you can register for British Citizenship by registration (British citizenship for child born in the UK) on their behalf. To register for British Citizenship by registration you will need to complete the appropriate application form, as follows:
Once you have completed the online application form, you will need to:
Please note not everyone needs to pay all of the fees listed above as this will depend on when the applicant was born.
A person who holds British Citizenship is eligible to apply for a British passport, as a child or as an adult. To apply for a British passport for children or as an adult, the following steps should be completed:
Once the passport application is processed, you will receive your new passport by post at the address you provided.
References:
1 GOV.UK: Register for British citizenship as a child under 18
2 GOV.UK: Form T
3 GOV.UK: Child Application Form
4 GOV.UK: Applying for your first adult passport