to be pissed off at how much I am paying the Home Office!!

[MichKit]

Sorry, just a rant. Am off to get naturalised as a British citizen tomorrow and its costing me £750 for me + £460 for DD. Already paid the Home Office £200 for original visa, £255 to extend student visa, £450 for dependent visa, £750 for permanent residency, all in the past 7 years. And after this I will have to pay more for a passport.

Have paid through the nose on taxes, have not been claiming ANY benefits (including child, though I should now!).

AIBU to be feeling taken advantage of? Especially when a friend who works for the HO told me that teh actual admin costs to do all these visas are minimal?

There you go, you've halved that £750 already. Learn to love Scotland and NI and you've got a snip.

No you don't have to give up your US citizenship!

Name one person who has had their US citizenship revoked?

Morloth, how mcuh do you ahev to pay with passport fees for the Aussie citizenship?

My whole bugbear is the abnormally high cost for what is essetially an administrative process. They've already run through all the checks anyway!

ilovemydogandmrobama, I have Indian citizenship, sorry should have made that clear.

is that right Buch? Coz if it is then I'm royally p*d off...

In order to apply for their passports I was asked for a birth cert. Was then (mistakenly?) told that they would have to be registered at the err... somewhere in the south of england... what is it called?... the place with the registry office for marriages/births/deaths happening abroad?... Anybody remembers?

Anyway, it was THAT registration that cost us can't remember what, as the person on the phone of the B.E. told us that they need a British birth certificate. With DC3 in Italy I didn't investigate, just went through the motions again.

Was I lied to????? It's been years now, but I'll happily go, find that person and smash an old rusty pan on their head. We were really struggling back then and had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for this fee...

Were you born in the UK? (let's do this one step at a time!)

yep, both dh and I

When and where were the dcs born?

Sorry. I assumed

Actually looking it up it will only come to about 150 quid for citizenship and the passport. However, remember we are applying to our home country for something we are entitled to. They are not doing us the favour of allowing us to stay in a foreign country.

We have just had our Ancestry Visas renewed here and it has cost 918pounds. To add the new baby to the visa as a dependant will be another 50.

dc1 london 2003
dc2 athens 2006 (where i was given the info)
dc3 rome 2008

apologies to op for hijacking

If you were born in the UK, you are British Other Than By Descent (OTBD) and can pass on your nationality to your children born abroad. Your children are British, end of, they do not need a birth certificate from the British Embassy/High Commission. This is just something which is nice to have for some people. A local birth certificate should have sufficed, with evidence that you are British OTBD. The British birth cert is then lodged with the GRO. I doubt a consular official would have insisted you shell out for something unnecessary.

apologies from me to OP as well!
Both dc2 and dc3 were automatically British Citizens at birth. Any child born outside of the UK after 1/1/83 to a British born mother (and subsequent to, I think 2006, although I'd left the HO by then, a BC unmarried father,) is automatically British by descent.

I think what you have paid for, is the privilege of having a British birth certificate, (but foreign babies born in the UK get one of those too!) I've seen this loads, people thinking they need to buy this bit of paper, but your children would have got a BC ppt anyway.

(my dd also born in Italy, 2003, and I've certainly not bothered with any form of regn.)

ISorry!

And MichKit, as far as I am aware, the British authorities don't tell other auths that you've become british.

Bucharest is right, Mummygirl. If one of the parents had naturalised in UK, they would be British OTBD as well, and be able to pass on their nationality.

Argh! This has angered me, but thank you for the info and clarification

I think I need wine to get over it :-)

It's a pain- I worked for the flippin naty office for almost 5 yrs and yet when dd was born, even I trailed through all the legislation again, making sure I wasn't missing something I should have done!

No probs with the hijacking. Its interesting to hear others' stories as well.

I used to tell people to save their money - no need for a British birth certificate. There used to be something called Consular Birth Registration, which conferred British nationality on a child which wouldn't otherwise have been British (if it was British by descent but too far back) and I think lots of people overseas get confused with this (especially in places where there are lots of expats, in former British colonies).

MrsSchadenfreude, true, but the Indian authorities check pretty rigorously! I have to get what is called OCI, overseas citizenship of India, to go back to India for holiday etc. Not too bad, because its a lifetime thing, but yet another expense.

are/were you a consular bod MrsS or a fellow nationality office-ite? Have we stood by the tea urn together????

No, have never worked at Home Office, but have done immigration and consular work overseas. Am currently doing a bit of ad hoc HR stuff for UKBA (among other things!).

Jill of all trades, master (mistress?) of none! That's me.