Child's passport

OneColdHand

Hoping someone can help me

First child is 3 weeks old. I'm irish, wife is canadian. Currently living in Edinburgh (for 2 years). Child born in Edinburgh.

I'm trying figure out if the child is entitled to a UK passport. I found the following on www.gov.uk/check-british-citizen:
When you were born, was one of your parents a British citizen or legally settled in the UK?
‘Legally settled’ means they had the right to live permanently in the UK (also known as ‘indefinite leave to remain’).

Basically I want to check if I am considered 'legally settled'? I'm assuming I am as an EU citizen, but not sure what 'indefinite leave to remain' means, and don't want to go through the process of applying until I'm sure my child can get a passport.

Thanks in advance.

HarborcOat

It's Wikipedia, so usual health warnings apply, but the last section of the article 'British Nationality Law and the Republic of Ireland' might be of some help, or point you in the right direction at least. (Sorry, being a new user I can't post a link).

"Irish citizens are automatically deemed to be settled in the UK".

OneColdHand

HarborcOat wrote: »

It's Wikipedia, so usual health warnings apply, but the last section of the article 'British Nationality Law and the Republic of Ireland' might be of some help, or point you in the right direction at least. (Sorry, being a new user I can't post a link).

"Irish citizens are automatically deemed to be settled in the UK".

Yeah I did come across that definition on wikipedia, but wanted to try and get a bit more concrete answer! Cheers...

Dr_Bill

First off congrats, enjoy the sleepless nights :-) Best advice would be to ring them up and speak with them!

OneColdHand

Dr_Bill wrote: »

First off congrats, enjoy the sleepless nights :-) Best advice would be to ring them up and speak with them!

Cheers! Pfft, sleep is overrated!

Yeah I rang yesterday and they confirmed she is entitled to one. But initially he told me she wasn't, and I haven't been in the for 5 years. I then explained that I was irish, and I thought that mean't that I was automatically 'settled'. After a long time on hold, and checking with his supervisor, he said that I was right! So it's obviously pretty confusing if even the Passport Adviceline aren't sure about it!

dsullivan18

My advice to anyone contacting a Govt. agency Irish or British is write or email them, because if you call you may get the wrong answer. Unfortunately call centre staff are often the least trained, and moreover we all have limits to our own knowledge. By writing an email you're more likely to get the correct information.

I knew of two Irish parents with a British born child being wrongly told by the UK passport authorities that they could not apply for a British passport for that child. They took it at face value and were forced to apply for an Irish passport despite them having a preference for the child to have a passport from the country that he was actually born in.

Irish are settled on entry to the UK, so any child born in the UK with an Irish parent is a British citizen. The only legal quagmire I can foresee is with genuine border babies i.e. parents resident in the RoI crossing the border to a NI hospital to give birth, are they settled on entry or would they have to be ordinarily resident in the UK first? As the birth certificate would have the parents' address in the RoI. One for the lawyers, me thinks!

By the sounds of it your child is lucky from birth he has a choice of British, Irish and Canadian citizenship!

rainbow kirby

My son (3.5 weeks old) will be getting his British one first - the wait for an Irish one at the moment is a huge pain! 7 weeks from mine being posted to printing. I have a British passport and my son was born in London so that does make things easier but it still requires a decent bit of documentation.

dsullivan18

An Irish passport might be eight weeks away, but it would cost only 13 for a newborn against a whopping 46 for a child's UK passport - although the latter would be valid for five years, the former only three. 4.33 pa for Irish or 9.20 pa for British. Pragmatism over patriotism!

OneColdHand

dsullivan18 wrote: »

My advice to anyone contacting a Govt. agency Irish or British is write or email them, because if you call you may get the wrong answer. Unfortunately call centre staff are often the least trained, and moreover we all have limits to our own knowledge. By writing an email you're more likely to get the correct information.

I knew of two Irish parents with a British born child being wrongly told by the UK passport authorities that they could not apply for a British passport for that child. They took it at face value and were forced to apply for an Irish passport despite them having a preference for the child to have a passport from the country that he was actually born in.

Irish are settled on entry to the UK, so any child born in the UK with an Irish parent is a British citizen. The only legal quagmire I can foresee is with genuine border babies i.e. parents resident in the RoI crossing the border to a NI hospital to give birth, are they settled on entry or would they have to be ordinarily resident in the UK first? As the birth certificate would have the parents' address in the RoI. One for the lawyers, me thinks!

By the sounds of it your child is lucky from birth he has a choice of British, Irish and Canadian citizenship!

That's EXACTLY what happened me. Until I corrected him!