# Dual Citizenship Advice



## Chris1978

Hi,

I've tried to search online for the answer but to no avail, so I thought I'd try here to see if anyone knows and can explain it in layman's terms.

I am a British citizen and have been living in Germany for about 4 years now. I'm married to a German and we have just had our first child. We wanted to ask if anyone knows how we go about getting British Citizenship for our baby (so she'll have dual citizenship) before March 2019?

The info I've found online is rather confusing.

Thank you.


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## kaju

Chris1978 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I've tried to search online for the answer but to no avail, so I thought I'd try here to see if anyone knows and can explain it in layman's terms.
> 
> I am a British citizen and have been living in Germany for about 4 years now. I'm married to a German and we have just had our first child. We wanted to ask if anyone knows how we go about getting British Citizenship for our baby (so she'll have dual citizenship) before March 2019?
> 
> The info I've found online is rather confusing.
> 
> Thank you.


https://www.gov.uk/apply-citizenship-british-parent/born-on-or-after-1-july-2006

I'd apply right now although I have no idea how long the process takes.

See the links in the above page for how to apply for confirmation of British Nationality status. At the same time, I'd apply for a child's passport.

I don't know how Brexit will affect all this, but once Britain is out of the EU, it will be very likely be much harder to get dual nationality - Germany still doesn't like allowing dual nationality and only does so with other EU countries. If you're from a non-EU country there is a possibility to get dual German and non-EU nationality via a beibehaltung but this can be a long, difficult process even if you have sufficient grounds (and just wanting to isn't sufficient!).


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## Bevdeforges

As far as I know, dual nationality is generally only possible for a child born in Germany with one German parent and one foreign parent. And, the child retains that dual nationality for the rest of their lives. (Or certainly does now.)

You need to register the child with the British authorities (usually the embassy or consulate), but she should be a dual national from birth. Brexit has nothing to do with it - there are plenty of dual US-German citizens in Germany under the same set of rules.


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## kaju

Bevdeforges said:


> As far as I know, dual nationality is generally only possible for a child born in Germany with one German parent and one foreign parent. And, the child retains that dual nationality for the rest of their lives. (Or certainly does now.)
> 
> You need to register the child with the British authorities (usually the embassy or consulate), but she should be a dual national from birth. Brexit has nothing to do with it - there are plenty of dual US-German citizens in Germany under the same set of rules.


UK registration is done online directly here: https://www.gov.uk/register-a-birth/y


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## wadistance

Yep. You can get both. My daughter has Australian and German and it was a birthright for both countries as she has a German mother. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## ALKB

Bevdeforges said:


> As far as I know, dual nationality is generally only possible for a child born in Germany with one German parent and one foreign parent. And, the child retains that dual nationality for the rest of their lives. (Or certainly does now.)
> 
> You need to register the child with the British authorities (usually the embassy or consulate), but she should be a dual national from birth. Brexit has nothing to do with it - there are plenty of dual US-German citizens in Germany under the same set of rules.


British citizenship law is horribly complicated.

If the British parent was born outside of the UK, then they often can't pass on their nationality, a whole set of requirements has to be met and there are loads of ifs and buts.


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## pjdy70

Do you have a UK birth certificate for the baby? If not, go to Consulate and get that done ASAP. Whilst we are overseas, elsewhere, we were advised that the longer you leave it to claim any UK entitlement (when you may have taken another nationality) the more problems you run into. If you do both of them close together, this should hopefully limit any problems.


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