Any Britons abroad thinking about applying for foreign nationality (BREXIT)

[GoodtoBetter]

Hi,

Been thinking about this for a while and there have been some articles today in the guardian which got me thinking again
www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/17/brexit-british-seeking-second-passport-europe-eu-referendum
I'm British, DH Spanish and we live in Spain. DS and DD (both under 8) were both born in Spain and their births registered here. We applied for UK passports for them and they are also Spanish (entitled to passports although we haven't bothered yet) by birth and parentage (DH).
I won't ever realistically be going back, been here 15 years, married, Spanish kids, have a (freelance) business, a mortgage etc etc.
I've been wondering about how I'll be affected by a possible UK exit from the EU, will I have the same rights to work and own property etc? and I am entitled to Spanish nationality by marriage and length of time here. But I think I'd have to renounce my UK nationality (dual nationality doesn't exist between Spain and the UK).
Also I suppose it would affect the kids' rights to UK nationality but I think they have to choose at some point anyway (18 or when they get a Spanish passport possibly).
But I'm seriously thinking about going for it. Hard to find information though about the questions I have.

I'm in Germany, married to a German, bilingual kids (eldest born in the UK and moved here before she was two years old, younger 2 born here) all educated in the German school system, German passports (because they are vastly cheaper and I can get them renewed by just walking into the town hall and filling in about 3 lines of info, and pick them up the following week on a specified day - less bureaucracy would you believe it...) all their friends are German (each of my younger kids have gone through a phase of not believing any other children speak English)...

We might not/ probably won't stay here forever, as in til the say we die... but we won't leave before all the kids are finished with school, maybe uni (no tuition fees...) so between another 12- 20 years... and if we do leave I doubt the UK would be our destination tbh.

I wouldn't like not to be able to live in the UK if something happened to DH though, so don't want to give up my nationality - I'm not German and never will be (my German is functional but deeply flawed...)

I qualify like you by marriage and length of residence but DH tells me there is a get out precisely because of qualifying in this way and being EU and I could have joint nationality.

It is on my to do list to get the ball rolling (at least to get the paperwork and check that I am indeed entitled to dual nationality), I keep not getting around to it... I will when the kids go back to school in September...

Hi Nur I think if Spain allowed dual nationality I'd have done it by now. But I'm not sure what's holding me back. I don't think realistically I'd go back even if DH died, or certainly not until DCs were independent and they're only 7 and 4. But renouncing your nationality does seem a big step.

Good that's why my Croation MIL never applied for duel nationality even though she's been married to FIL 40 years, lived here 46 (I think...) years, left Croatia when she was 19, and has German kids in their 30s who (sadly) don't even speak Croatian, and says she's thought and dreamt in German for over 30 years... She doesn't want to give up her Croatian nationality and, at least until 2013, wouldn't have been eligible for duel (DH has mentioned it to her since but she doesn't see the point now) ...

I guess Croatian nationality has its own poignancy because it wasn't even a country when she left... but it is hard to give up your nationality psychologically, even if you never intend to live in the country of your birth again.

It makes it hard that there is no dual nationality. I personally don't think you need to worry though, I don't think the UK will leave the EU. Personally I don't understand not allowing dual nationality, but in case you are worried, according to Wiki British nationals who acquire the nationality of a country that does not allow dual nationality may be required by the other country to renounce British nationality to retain the other citizenship. None of this affects a person's national status under UK law. In other words, you will still be British if you become Spanish. So you might want to get that confirmed.

That's sort of how it works for the dc, tomato. They are entitled to both by birth and parentage and could hold both at the same time in that Spain doesn't recognise dual nat so they are just Spanish. Spain sort of puts its fingers in its ears and goes lalalalala

But at the same time they have the right to a UK passport