british parents Aussie Baby,

[kaydrury82]

Hi my husband and I are returning back to the UK after 6 years in Australia. we do not have time to get my daughter a british passport but she does have an Australian one.
I have asked about a possible visa for her but as she is only 1 year old and isn't working, visiting or studying these visas do not seem to apply.
I was wondering if anyone has had any experience in this area and can advise if she would be ok to just enter the country with us and then we can get her a british passport when we are in the UK.
we are both British by birth so she is British by decent.
I have read on another forum that s long as we have our British birth certificates with us then there shouldn't be any problems.

any help would be great

Thanks

I'm not sure you can do this legally

I think you either have to wait for her British Passport
Or lie and say you are all visiting UK for a holiday, then change your minds once you're there

In the latter case, make sure nothing you are taking with you contradicts your story. I'd get proper advice on this one, you wouldn't want her to be refused entry and all have to fly back again

We had a similar situation and we're told that we needed to go to the UK on holiday, apply for DS's British passport while there and then leave. When we went back three weeks later to live permanently he entered on his UK passport legally.

For us this was fairly practical though as although DS and I are both are Australian/ British dual nationals we were actually living in a third country much closer to the UK.

I've no idea whether she can travel with just a birth certificate - you need to ask the High Commission and the airline.

British citizens should not travel on a visa to UK. It will complicate, but should not prevent, later issuing of a passport (it can be held to be a renouncement of citizenship).

Is there any way at all you can get the British passport in time? If DH's employer has just transferred you back on essentially no notice (less than issue time) can they help sort it out?

I assume that the DD will travel on an Aussie passport rather than with a birth certificate and the OP is referring to her and her DH's birth certificates.

The idea of getting the employer to pay for flights for the holiday is a good one, this is what we did. Still have the practical aspects of a 24 hr flight with a toddler though but wondering if you can holiday in the UK and leave to go to France (or similarly close) country rather than going back to Oz and then re-entering.

She needs a child visa. I am Australian, DH is British, we once came back into UK with DD and she just had her Australian passport (her British one was left at home - my fault) and it was a nightmare. They wouldn't let her through. Eventually they were able to verify her British citizenship, address and passport, but she should have had a child visa if travelling on her Australian passport. Second time we tried to do this (accidentally presented her Australian passport at check in at Brisbane airport) it was picked up by the airline before we left Brisbane and a very distressed staff member from Qantas told us we couldnt take her with us! Luckily DH had just handed over the wrong passport for that leg of the holiday and I showed them the right one and all was fine. Get the child visa!

i am not sure about this, but if she does not yet have british citizenship you might want to think about getting it in the uk rather than in oz. that way she will be 'otherwise than by descent' so her kids can keep british nationality if born outside uk
sorry. i dont know about the visa thing though

sanfairyanne, I think (but not 100% sure) that you have to be born in the UK to have citizenship other than by descent (i.e. from birth). The only exceptions to this (as far as I know) are those born overseas while their UK citizen parents are, e.g serving in the military...

yes i am quite vague about it but i know quite a few expats who chose to do it this way as apparently it is 'better' citizenship. once you have registered eg at embassy abroad, it is too late though to then get citizenship through residence in uk

Why does she need a visa if she's British?

She is British by descent(unless Australia does not allow dual citizenship) and cannot change her British citizenship to anything else.

You can have a "better" citizenship by being registered (in the case of minors) as BCs but only if you aren't already one as the OP's child is.

(to clarify, she cannot change her by descent status to OTBD)

Why does she need a visa if she's British?

I guess because she only has an Australian passport.

i thought she was only aussie so far and they didnt have a uk birth reg or uk passport for her, just the aussie ones?

Call the UK consulate and sort this out. You need either a visa or a UK passport for her. Her birth certificate is not a travel document, and immigration officers will not be impressed that you have failed to apply for her UK passport when you had more than a year to do so (as she is one year old).

They will not be overly helpful at Heathrow if you have been feckless and not bothered to sort her a passport. If you have a good excuse, backed by evidence, to explain the delay then you're in a much better position. The consulate can advise you.

You may not get as far as Heathrow - airlines won't carry passengers if they (the airline) are not satisfied that the travel documents are correct (big fines for them if they get that wrong).

It says it takes 8 weeks from receipt to issue an overseas passport, and it's probably wise to add a safety margin as this is peak time for the Passport Office. When do you hope to depart? Is there any way one of you can stay on a bit if necessary? It will be much easier in the long run if you do it that way round.

Also, in the longer term, remember that she would currently be British by descent, which means her children would not be able to claim British citizenship from her. You can however apply to register her before she is 18 if she spends 3 years continuously in UK.

The 3 yrs continuous UK residence to be able to register as a BC only applies when the parent(s) of the child are BC-D and the child is thus Not British.

This child is BC-D already.

www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/section/3

I think Passport Control are very strict. We were migrating back to UK from Oz with a 12 wk old. She only had a British passport. To hear 'I'm sorry Madam but we can't let this child out if the country' was hugely stressful given the flight was imminent. It got sorted in the end once we explained we were never coming back and she wouldn't need an Ozzie passport. It's not the same as your situation but to avoid airport stress at either end, I'd check and double-check

I am sorry for such an unhelpful contribution, but overseas applications for first time child passports are listed as taking at least six weeks, with no upper limit for processing time.

I applied for DS's passport from France at the end of February and received it at the end of May. This was with a few panicked calls to the passport office too, as we moved internationally at the beginning of June. I think you would have to allow four months for a first time UK passport if you are applying from outside the UK.