International relationship and marriage

[Tanya2011]

Hello, thanks for looking.

An old boyfriend is dating a lovely girl from central europe. They will probably get married in due course. She has lived in the UK for 10 years and then went overseas somewhere else to do nursing. Now she's in the UK again to live.

What's your view on these types of relationships, especially with all this current debate over europe. Seems lovely to me. (And this thing about being in / out of europe is odd as so many holidaymakers go there from the Uk and have been for years and some even have villas or the like there!)

Thanks for looking.

What do you mean by "these type of relationships" exactly? I am not sure quite what you are asking, and why.

If she's lovely then it's lovely isn't it?

There is a problem I've noticed (living in Central europe) that a lot of women meet lovely men from the UK, get married but when they have children they always want to return back to their home country - to be with family, because they know the school system, and because they're just more familiar with the place. That means, of course, that the father needs to move there too or they split up.

It doesn't always happen, but it does seem to happen a lot. And it causes a lot of angst.

She has lived 10 years in the UK?

Well, she is British you know. You only need to live here 5 years if you are a EU national to become British.

So not an international affair. She is a local lass...

As you mention this, may I also point out that all the foreign babies that the DM hails are clogging up our infrastructure (schools, hospitals, etc. ) are actually British citizens too?

I have lived 7 years in Belgium Frequent, but I have not become Belgian

Portofino Lucky escape, I say.

And I lived in Belgium four years!

Well, if she's still a girl, then they'll have to wait a while by law.

From what you've posted, I can't really see why the relationship is any different to any other. It all sounds lovely & happy to me.

It sounds a far cry from the "young waiter marries vulnerable widow in order to get Visa & con her out of her life savings whilst remaining married to wife in home country" scenario. The example above I have a very personal and horrendous experience of, I would warn anyone thinking of doing the same to run a mile. However, I would be very happy for someone in the situation you describe. HTH .

I don't quite get the issue here, if she is say from Poland, she will have the right to travel and settle in any EU county, so there is no suggestion of needing anyone for a visa.

International relationships are always more stressful because you have two sets of families, cultures and so on and cannot live in two places at once, so over the years of deciding about schooling, where to live, how to care for elderly relatives, you can often be torn unless one partner is very easy going about living in the other one's culture.

Frequent - She's not British just because she's lived here for over five years. She's just entitled to apply for British citizenship. Also, the "foreign babies" you refer to will take on the nationality of their parents, unless the parent(s) have a particular status in the UK which will allow them to register their children as British citizens, while they retain their own nationality.

I feel I'd get on a lot better with this thread if I actually understood what the OP is asking about.

If the OP thinks it sounds lovely, who is it that is having views on "this type of relationship"? Friends? Relatives?

If they are not married then the children will take their nationality from their mother.
I was not born in the UK although my parents are both british and I 'came home' at 6 months old so don't know any different.
Dp and I are not married. I had extra stuff to fill out on my children's passport applications (children born in uk). Since a few years back, being born in Britain does not automatically make you british or dual nationality with whatever nationality your parents are.

So if your friend has children with her and they are not married, then the children will take their mothers nationality and won't be british. I was born abroad when dad was working for the foreign office and I was registered at the British COnsulate, which I think has helped over the years.

'this type of relationship' pah.

Are you doing research for something OP?

Sorry, to clarify. I had extra stuff to fill in on my children's passport applications because they were born in the UK to unmarried parents, thus take their nationality from their mother, and their mother (even though a british citizen via her own parents) was not born in the UK.
Had to give info about my own parents places of birth, parents date of marriage and some other info. I think when I applied for my own first passport donkeys years ago, I had to enclose my mothers old passport which I entered the UK on.

On DPs side it was just a couple of boxes for 'father'.
I tried to do that 'check and pay' thing at the Post Office as I was not sure about it all and wanted to make sure it was all done OK. But the clerk didn't know what to do in my case and didn't want to be responsible for checking them!

Thank you for the replies.

She's a nurse and religious. (Not one of those man hunters coming to London to find an elderly husband "victim" type.)

There seem to be practical matters like schooling and caring for elderly relatives and seeing family. But apart from that.

I was just wondering.

Thank again for the replies.

Mumsyblouse > Did you want to write "EU country" instead or "EU county"? What happens if the UK leaves the EU in 2017? This is an odd proposition as so many holiday in Euro countries and have villas etc there so not sure what leave the EU would actually mean, formal agreements etc but otherwise?

EllaFitzgerald you are correct.

OP, no one actually knows what will happen should the UK negotiate its way out of its current EU agreements. For now, if your old BF could look up current family law that would apply to his union and th potential children, eg Hague convention, nationality, etc. for example Germany does not allow double nationality, etc.

Good luck.