Dual nationality french english for my son

i have a son who is nearly 16,he has asked me several times about dual nationality,his mother is french ,he was born in france and has never lived in the uk,i am english in france for 16 years, despite asking google i cannot seem to find any relevant information,has anyone been in a similar situation?any advice about how to apply would be most welcome!

I'm in the same situation, I have two kids, 9 and 7, both French, with my French other-half. They have absolutely no documents or certificates from the UK but after the birth of my first child I looked up on the UK gov site and at the time they were automatically British too (I'm English and a British passport holder). I don't think anything has changed, I think we can get uk passports or them as a right as they're dual nationality by birth (parents rather than country of birth) but I haven't looked for years.

hi andrew,were your children born in france?i've sent a message to the gov uk site to ask their advice as looking on the site i cannot find an answer,no reply yet but it was only yesterday,thanks for your message,i was wondering if there was anyone else in my situation.

Yes, my kids were born in France and have only ever gone to the UK for the odd holiday using their French ID cards. Have a look at this page and do the test or this page which is my case - I've just learnt that it isn't automatic and that I have to apply to get them British citizenship and passports :-O

Further to what I said earlier, and to my relief, I've just read this in the application pack:

2. British citizenship by descent
British citizenship may descend to one generation born abroad. So a child born abroad to a parent who is British otherwise than by descent will automatically be British by descent.
The exception is
 A child born before 1 July 2006 to a British father and non-British mother who were not married. The child will be able to apply for registration under section 4G using form UKF.

so mine, born in 2007 and 2009 are British by descent :-)

thats great for you andrew,my son was born in 2000 though!,from what i can make out,it is possible for a 900 pound fee(returnable if refused)plus finger printing! would possibly be easier if i was married to his mother,will wait and see what they tell me directly.

900 quid, that's outragous :-O I hope you get better news directly ;-)

i have received a reply to my enquirey,not sure where the 900 pound fee came from but to be honest it's still not clear,it seems my son (his father being english born) is entitled to an english passport ,the fact that i-m not married to his mother could be a problem(a marriage proposal is out of the question) i think it would be best to phone and make sure before paying the online fee and beinng refused!

Did you declare him at the consulate and get a UK birth certificate for him? That makes administration a lot easier (I and my children were all born with dual nationality, it isn't any more - or indeed less - complicated now than when I was a child)

Get his French birth certificate (from the mairie he was declared in) where all your details appear or you won' t have a leg to stand on, admin-wise. If filiation is unclear it is very very difficult to get papers sorted efficiently. You need to get on with it as it is a lot harder if he's over 18. Once you have a UK birth certificate everything else is simpler (this is what I did for my youngest daughter born in France, in order to get her British passport, French admin for French people born abroad is MILES simpler in my experience).

no ,my son was'nt declared at the consulate but i am noted on his french birth certificate as his father,from what i understood ,i can apply for a british passport ,i had'nt thought about his birth certificate to be honest!this seems to be getting complicated again,to deal with the french is my worst nightmare,not a problem of language but someone sends you somewhere and someonelse sends you back to the starting point and everyone you talk to gives the right advice until you talk to someone else!

Déclaré him retrospectively, if this is possible for UK citizens, at your nearest consulate, that way you get a UK birth certificate and subsequent dealings are much easier. They don't like strange foreign formats any more than the French do and honestly they are more of a nuisance than the French about paperwork as far as I can see from my dealings with both (with specific reference to children's nationality and ID issues).

You don't have to 'deal with the French' getting a birth certificate takes 5 minutes here, you just go to the Mairie where the birth was declared and ask for an extrait de naissance. It is no big deal. With that, you go and see the UK people and get sorted. You can't just trot along to an embassy or consulate without any documents proving your son's identity and his relationship with you, they will tell you to sling your hook and stop wasting their time, as you might expect.

It really is as easy as that - otherhalf needed a copy of hers the other day, I wrote a email to the mairie explaining and we had it in the post by the end of the week. If we'd had the time to drive the half hour up the road we could have had it the same day ;-)