WWYD German/English passport

[ilovespinach]

DH and I are from the UK living in Germany. We have uk passports as do dc1 and dc2. Dc3 is a couple of weeks old and we have a letter to say he is eligible for a German Kinderreispass.

Looking at the cost, the German option is muich cheaper - 15 euros as opposed to 129 for the Uk one. TBH we would struggle to find the extra for the Uk passport.

WWYD would you be ok with everyone bar one travelling on a UK passport? Would this make dc3 technically German as he also has a German birth certificate? (even though he is born to English parents?) Or am I, in my very hormonal and sleep-deprived state, massively overthinking this ? :)

Hi

I have a British passport, DH German, dd was born in the UK and had a British passport from babhood til it expired when she was 5, both my DSs were born in Germany - all 3 kids now have German passports. I have never had the slightest problem travelling without DH with my kids, even when my passport was still in my maiden name (due to my lazyness and reluctance to pay and do paperwork to change it) so I had a different surname and a different nationality to my kids on my passport!

German one is much less hassle, doesn't stop you getting the DC a British one later, nor does having a German birth certificate if at least one parent is English (as they are).

Don't know if that helps, I personally don't quite get my ex-pat acquaintances determination to keep their kids on British passports which are a huge admin hassle and about 8 times the cost, is there a reason???

Congratulations on DC3! :)

We had the same issue recently when DS's passport came up for renewal. I'd always got British passports for the DC before as I'd wanted to hang on to a bit of Britishness but it seemed silly to pay ?129 for the privilege (plus the cost of registered post to Düsseldorf), not to mention the hassle of finding a countersignatory etc., when he could get a passport for ?30 here in Austria.

I paid an equally ridiculous amount for a British birth certificate for DD1, but the woman at the consulate in Vienna virtually talked me out of getting one for DD2 - she said that she's automatically a British citizen through me - so I didn't bother for either DD2 or DS, who just have Austrian birth certificates.

DD1 was born in the USA and had a US passport the first few times I flew with her, before I got round to getting a British passport for her. It was never a problem that we had different passports (I just had the slight extra hassle of filling in a landing card for her when we arrived in Europe, but obviously that wouldn't apply if your DC have EU passports).

German passport it is then!

My only angst was about him being different to the others.....EUis all the same though I guess ;)

thanks

A passport / national ID card is just proof of a nationality, you still have a nationality without a passport / national ID. A birth certificate is never indicative of nationality, it is given to anyone born in a particular country, even if they are born of illegal immigrants or asylum seekers.

If your child is German, they are German, whether they have a Kinderausweis or not. If your children is British, they are British.

It's pretty common now to travel in family groups with different passports. The only issue you need with a child is if anyone questions parentage (especially if the child carries a different surname to the parent), then you simply carry proof of relationship. I don't think a Kinderausweis (Maschinenlesbarer Kinderreisepass), so just carry the birth certificate too to show parents' identities.