British Expatriate Network

in the UK, is it automatically entitled to US Citizenship because of the Father being American?

Is it different if you are just visiting the UK versus if you are living there?

Just wondered.... wink


(No, I'm NOT! lol )

Stel.

Yes, they are entitled to citizenship. )

Don't know what you mean about visiting the UK rather than living there because you would have to be visiting for an awfully long time if you were going to have a baby there - my understanding if airlines won't let a pregnant lady fly beyond a certain date into her pregnancy. But yes, the baby would still be entitled to US citizenship. )

If you are worried about labor and delivery over here, don't be - Debs, Zed and I will be there to help wink

Haha.
lol

Imagining you, Zed and Debs quoffing wine and cracking rude jokes while I struggle to squeeze out a small human roll

I think I'll just get another dog.. lol

Don't take this as legal advice - it isn't - but there would be a difference. As a general rule any child born in the US is entitled to citizenship automatically (regardless of whether the parents are citizens). If you want a US passport you just use the US issued birth certificate.

If the child is born in outside the US but has a US Citizen parent, they are entitled to citizenship but, as I understand it, do not aquire it automatically - you must apply for it. You would have to prove that the parent was
1. really the parent
2. a US citizen.

I suspect the latter process is relatively simple but likely to take more time, which would perhaps be an issue if you needed a passport to get the child back into the USA. You might want to seek professional advice ahead of time.

The US citizen parent has to have spent 7 years in the US in order to pass on citizenship.

To get a consular report of birth abroad, you (specifically the US citizen parent) take the baby and the locally issued birth certificate to the US consulate; you apply for a US passport at the same time.

If the parents aren't married and it's the father who is the USC, he needs to provide medical proof of paternity too.

We did US passports during half-term in October, and had the new ones back 9 days later. These were replacements, but I don't think it take any longer to get first passports, as all the processing is done on the spot in the embassy.

Well, Him has spent 27 years living in the US as a citizen so I think he'd be alright.

I wondered if we happened to spend a year or so over there and had a child during that time - if it would be a problem, but it seems not.

Thanks for the replies.

Stel.

My daughter was born in the UK with a US father. The Consular Report of a Birth Abroad was quite easy to get from the US Embassy but we were warned not to lose it as they are quite difficult to replace. I don't know whether that's true or not.

You may lose your Green Card if not careful, I think you'd deffo need a re-entry permit in order to maintain PR status.

However even if you did lose your green card due to being out of the country a long while, you could just DCF again in London, just be a bit of a hassle and more $$$'s to the INS.

My daughter was born in Spain.
Her father was a US citizen.
We were not married at the time.
He did not have to prove paternity.
It was all very quick and easy

I've not seen that elsewhere - everything I've seen suggests that as long as you're a USC by birth you have the right to pass on the citizenship. Can you tell me where I can find more info?