Dual nationality - British/German

[woody2009]

Hello all,
I wonder if you can help. I'm British and my baby is due at the end of this month. My husband is German, but has lived in the UK for 15 years (although for German purposes he's still resident there because he's never officially informed them and has had ID cards etc reissued as a German resident). We're wondering if the baby will be able to have dual nationality and if so, how we should go about it. Many thanks!

Yes AFAIK Germany permits dual nationality where the child is born with it. I'm pretty sure Germany have both sanguinis and soli, so your DH being German your child(ren) will be entitled to German nationality on the grounds that he has it despite being born in the UK. As far as Germany is concerned, though, your child will be only German in Germany (same goes for British in Britain) and will have to meet any national obligations (e.g. national service).

Assuming you are in the UK your baby will be entitled to British citizenship and you register the birth/apply for a passport as normal. To find out about registering your child as a German national your best bet is to contact the embassy, your nearest consulate, or your husband's local Staatsangehörigkeitsbehörde (or Standesamt). I think I spelt that right... This link may be useful as it has the form required for registering a birth on the page.

Your baby will automatically be British even if you don't give birth in the UK, because of your UK c/ship.

If you do give birth in Germany, don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to register your baby with the Brits. The baby will still be British (and entitled to a passport) through you, even if not registered. The consular birth registration thing is a Home Office moneyspinner and totally unnecessary.

Thanks for the advice, both. I think I gave a bit of a confused account of my situation. My husband was born in Germany, but has lived in London for the last 15 years. We live in London and will have the baby here. I will suggest that he give the German embassy a call (and thanks for the link). Best wishes.

It should be no problem for you to establish German citizenship - my friend was in a similar situation and it was a formality at the embassy. I see two potential problems - firstly, if you have a boy he will be liable for national service, although that doesn't have to be in the army these days. Secondly, the embassy might wonder why you have a family together while officially living in different countries.

One advantage of having German citizenship is that the Kinderausweis is much cheaper than a British child's passport - in fact, is it free?

Hi, your baby has an automatic right to dual nationality. I was confused about this (have lived in the UK for what feels like centuries and both my dds were born here - dh is British). I thought they had to choose but not so. Does not matter if you bother to get a German passport for your baby or not, they will still count as citizens due to your dh's nationality.