[travelspice]

Hello again...

Just had lunch with a Canadian friend of mine in a similar situation to me,and she told me she had to get ILR for her kids before she could apply for citizenship. I told her the home office and this forum told me we could go straight into citizenship and not do ILR and she says no...can you help?

I came over with my 3 kids in 2012...I had ancestry visa, they were on dependent ancestry visas. In 2013 I became a citizen and got a British passport. In Aug of 2012 they will have been here 3 yrs, and I was told they could apply for citizenship, but my friend says this is incorrect and they need ILR first or citizenship will be denied.

Really worried now...hoping she took a step she did not need to do. She came in on citizenship but her husband had ancestry and the kids were ancestry dependents under him. He had to get ILR and so did the kids...maybe if she had put the kids under her it would have meant they did not need ILR?

Can anyone help me? This is a huge cost looming for us and very worrying...

Cheers

 

[Joppa]

Yes, they can apply for registration as British citizen otherwise than by descent after 3 years in UK without first getting ILR and a parent being a British national called Section 3(1) application. It's by discretion of Home Secretary if they consider it's in their best interest to be registered. You will need to mention their other parent and whether you have his consent.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...er-child-under-18-as-british-citizen-form-mn1

 

[travelspice]

Hi thanks, that is great, I have sole custody and do have original letter from 2012 through a lawyer where he states he has no opposition to them making a permanent move to the UK. This is such a relief, but my friend is very upset as she has basically paid double for both ILR and citizenship fees and really she only had to pay citizenship.

 

[Joppa]

It may be a wise move to get another letter off him stating he has no objection to their acquiring British nationality. It may speed up your process.

 

[travelspice]

I will do that, very good advice. Also my friend is rather upset that she just lost so much money on ILRs for her kids that were not necessary...turns out they were not on ancestry, but her husband was on a spousal visa and kids were under dependents on his spousal visa. she asked me to ask if you know if she can get a refund for the ILRs? I told her likely not...but she wants to fight for it.

 

[travelspice]

she says when she applied for ILR, they should have called her and said you do not need ILR, they could see she was a citizen...

 

[Joppa]

They don't volunteer information like that. It's up the applicant to familiarise themselves with the rules and procedure and make a valid application. The thing is she could apply for ILR and then citizenship, and it's just that the first stage was unnecessary (but still possible). Sometimes people don't want to go for citizenship, often because their native country doesn't allow dual nationality and automatically cancels the original citizenship when they acquire another (Japan, China etc).

 

[travelspice]

ahh that makes sense. well, I think she plans to write to her MP to try and get help with it but since she went for the ILRs over a yr ago, it is really unlikely now to get anything back. Such a shame but mistakes are made...

 

[Joppa]

It may even be better if your ex can say he supports their getting British citizenship.
Zero chance of a refund I'm afraid.

 

[travelspice]

i will definitely get that arranged with him, cheers for that.