British citizenship by descent allows the person to apply for citizenship in Britain. The requirements are that you were born outside the Britain while your parents and grandparents were or are the British citizens. You will be glad to know that British citizenship acquired through descent is not limited to the just getting citizenship. You will have the free immigration movement along with getting a British passport and you can also vote in elections. So, by acquiring British citizenship through descent will not make you limited to the just citizen in fact you will get all the rights same as an ordinary British citizen. Be sure to visit Australian Migration Lawyers to find out more about migration legalities.
Well, you will get all the rights however, you cannot pass your citizenship to your children. The person who acquires citizenship by descent is not able to pass them to the next generation.
Eligibility
British citizenship by descent gets passed to the next generation automatically if the previous generation is not obtained by descent. Meaning, if you were born outside the united kingdom while your parents are or were citizens of Britain without the process of descent then you are eligible for the citizenship by descent program. However, if your parents gathered the citizenship through the descent program it will not be passed to you. So, to make your eligibility sure you have to ensure that your parents or grandparents do not gain the citizenship by descent program. However, if they are British citizens without the descent program then it can be passed to you easily.
To confirm that if you are automatically a British citizen you have to know that when you were born one of your parents was a British citizen. If you were born outside the Uk while your parents were British citizens and you were born before or after 1st July 2006 you are eligible for automatic citizenship by descent. Moreover, if you were born between 1983 to June 2006 then you are also eligible for the citizenship of Britain. However, you have to ensure that one of your parents was a British citizen when you were born. And they do not claim the citizenship by descent program.
How to apply
If you are not automatically a British citizen then you have to apply for that through the official website of the UK government. You have to prove that you have the birthright. When visiting the official website of the UK government you will be presented with the form which you have to fill. The form filling depends on your location, the time you were born and what is the route you are taking to apply for citizenship. Know that you can also apply for UK citizenship by post. However, we would not recommend that because the postal process takes a lot of time compared to online applications. So, applying online is easy and fast compared to postal applications.
After completing the form you need to take an appointment with the Uk visa and citizenship application office. There they will take your biometric verification along with a photograph.
While applying for your application for citizenship by descent program. You need to upload copies of supporting documents. The documents that prove that you are eligible for the citizenship of the UK. You can upload scanned copies of your documents if you are applying online. However, you can also take your documents with you when you will be visiting the UK visa and citizenship official point.
If your documents are accepted and you are over 18 years old you also have to attend the British ceremony. Know that there is an extra eighty pounds fee for that. So, applying for citizenship by descent for a British passport is quite simple. All you have to do is to fill out the form and provide the supporting documents that claim that you are eligible for the citizenship by descent program.
Now let’s take a look at if you are automatically a British citizen by descent. If you are eligible for automatic citizenship. You have to directly apply for a British passport. Moreover, you can also apply for the confirmation certificate that allows you to know your current immigration status. If you are under sixteen years of age you need to apply for a child passport. However, if you are older than 16 years then you have to apply for the adult passport. You can apply for a passport both online and through postal services.
If you are not interested in the passport for the time being you can apply for a letter confirmation certificate that allows you to know the current status of your British immigration. Know that the letter does not allow you to live, work or do business in the UK. To avail of those facilities you have to get a passport from the UK. You can avail of the certificate by visiting the official website of the UK government.
Bottom line
In this article, I have mentioned the methods to avail citizenship of UK by descent program. You have to ensure that it is not already done by your ancestors. If they do not avail the citizenship by descent then you are eligible to apply. Moreover, you have to keep your date of birth in mind while applying for the UK citizenship by descent. You have to ensure that you have all the necessary documents while applying as it can be a complex process.
However, we highly recommend hiring a professional service for this purpose. As they know what they are doing and they take every application differently which allows you to have freedom while applying for the application. Know that if there are mistakes in your application and documents the process can take a lot of time and it can be rejected so, hiring a professional immigration lawyer is an easy route. But it depends on you. You can do it for yourself if you have the knowledge.
Hope this article will help you in clearing things up about the process of immigration and acquiring citizenship of the UK by descent program.
