British by decent.

[junsai]

My mother is English and I was raised in America. I am wondering how long would it take me to claim British by decent and how long it'd take to get it. I'm some what interested in moving to England and France. Most of my family is in England.

[qman383]

Originally Posted by junsai

My mother is English and I was raised in America. I am wondering how long would it take me to claim British by decent and how long it'd take to get it. I'm some what interested in moving to England and France. Most of my family is in England.

Hello, we filed for a passport for my Daughter who was also born in America and is also British by decent. It took us two weeks to get her passport back. It was pretty straight forward. We included my wife's birth certificate and my daughters and the application. There are directions on what to include. I'm sure someone on this site will be able to provide a link and more info about this. Hope this helped some what.

[Joppa]

If you are British by descent, then you are British from birth and there is no need to claim or apply for it. As stated, just apply for your passport enclosing relevant documents. What you do is just send off the application and they will contact you asking for specific documents, such as birth amd marriage certificates. If your mother was British otherwise than by descent (i.e. born, adopted, naturalised or registered in UK), and provided you were born on or after 1st January 1983, you are British by descent. It's a bit more complicated if you were born before that. Then you normally need to register as British, undergo a background check (for criminal convictions) and attend a citizenship ceremoney (costs £80). The whole process may take several months, as all registrations have to be referred to UKBA office in Liverpool and they have a backlog.

[Rndebidee]

I was born before 1983 so I had to have my documents submitted to Liverpool and the whole process took 4 months. I am attending my ceremony tomorrow in Boston, Mass and the cost is $140.00 payable by money order. Like Joppa said if you were born after 1983 the process is so much easier.

[junsai]

I was born in 1990 so it should be a fairly straight through process then it seems.