HELP!? We are living in UK. DAD is CDN, Mom is French/US... What should baby be?

[rambotron]

Hi there, we are a young couple living in London, UK. My wife is French citizen, I have EEA permit, UK residency. My wife (we were married in US in 2008) will have our first born in May-ish. We'd like to immediately return to visit (the only) grandparent in Vancouver. SO we need a passport for the bundle of joy. BUT... if we go Canadian for baby's citizenship -- how do they return to live permanently in the UK; or do we go French thru mom's passport (even though she's not born in France[?]), or does the little one automatically qualify for UK citizenship? Any advice or help would be appreciated.
Thanks all,
cg

 

[MandiF]

Just from my personal research, my understanding is, if a child is born in a country where you are legally allowed to be, they they automatically get that country's citizenship, but as you are Canadian, they also automatically get Canadian citizenship.

I looked into this when I was trying to decide which country to have kids, as i thought a british passport would be quite useful for them when they were older. I have my British passport and live in UK right now, because my father was born here, although he doesn't live here anymore.

But it might be worth doing some more research to be sure.

 

[AllisonVSC]

That is not quite true, Mandi. According to the new citizenship law, people who took Canadian citizenship from their parents but were born outside Canada can not pass on citizenship to their children [born outside of Canada]. However, people who were born in Canada or are naturalized citizens can. (copied from a post by Leon in a thread called Hypothetical question in the Citizenship folder). So the ability for the child to claim CAN citizenship seems to rest on how the OP became a citizen and where he was born.

For another example my brother and sister in law are French living in Norway. Their child, born in Norway, does not automatically have Norwegian citizenship. But she can choose to become a citizen when she turns 18.