If you and your partner are non-British citizens in the UK, or if you are a British citizen living outside the UK, this guide will provide detailed Form MN1 guidance, helping to de-stress your mind and get you ready to apply for British Citizenship for your child.
A child under 18 can register as a British citizen if they were born in the UK and one of their biological parents has been granted British Citizenship or Settled Status since their birth. This includes if one of the child’s parents has been granted Settled Refugee Status.
The registration process for a child is usually less complex than the process for naturalisation. However, the application form is still long and complex.
Each of the MN1 Form’s eight steps has been broken down to help you understand how to register your child as a British citizen.
The first section of the form requires you to first give details about yourself and then of the child who is registering for citizenship.
Be sure to fill this section out in block capitals, in black ink. This information will appear on their registration certificate, so it is important to make sure it can be copied over easily.
For this section, you will need to provide the child’s marital status and national insurance number (if applicable), place of birth, immigration history, nationality and address.
Once you have completed this section, you must fill out the ‘parent’ section. If you are the child’s biological parent(s), fill out this section with your own information. If you are not the child’s biological parents, you must fill out the details of their biological parents in the final section of the form (Further Information).
The parent section requires information about both parents’ residence history and asks for full addresses and dates of living in each address. Make sure you fill this out accurately; the Home Office could check up on the accuracy of your statements by contacting previous landlords.
The next stage of the form requires you to give information about the child’s UK residence history. This also includes if the child has been resident in any of Britain’s overseas territories.
You will be required to say when the child first arrived in the UK and you will be given a detailed table to fill out. In this section, you must include details of when and where the child lived in the UK, from the date of their arrival in the UK to present.
In this section, you only need to include information for one biological parent who is British by descent. This part of the application requires you to include the details of residence for the relevant parent. Make sure that these details are as accurate as possible.
The parent also needs to provide details here of any absences the child may have had during their time in the UK.
You will also be required to add information about one of the child’s grandparents (the father or mother of the parent who is filling out this section). For this, you will need to know the grandparent’s birthplace, nationality and date of birth.
This section applies to the child applying for registration as a British citizen if they are aged 10 or older. If this is the case, you will need to give information about the child to show that they are of ‘good character’. This is important, as the Home Office are less likely to grant citizenship to individuals who have committed crimes or offences.
The form requires you to provide information about their school and employment (if relevant) history. You will also need to enter information about their criminal history (if any). You must answer this section truthfully or the application may be refused outright.
If the child has committed or been involved in any crimes or received any penalties from the authorities, you must give details of this, including the nature of the offence, the country it was committed in and the date they were sentenced or issued.
If the child has no criminal history, you will only need to state ‘No’ when asked if the applicant has “been convicted of any criminal offence in the UK or any other country”.
You will need to include a passport-sized photograph of the child making the British Citizenship application which goes alongside the Form MN1. Write the child’s name and date of birth on the back of the photograph, and then glue the photograph to the space provided in the right hand corner of the page.
Once you have added the photograph along with their full name, you will need to add reference details. There must be two references. Both must know the child personally, and at least one must be a professional who has engaged with the child professionally. This could be their teacher, doctor, social worker or minister of religion, for example.
The referees will be asked to provide their own details and sign their signature to state that the photograph you have provided is ‘of true likeness’ to the child they know personally and have worked with, who is named on the form.
A referee cannot:
To become a citizen of a country, a person must also register for their biometric information. To do this, they will need to provide their fingerprints – unless they are a child under the age of six. However, if the child is under six, you must submit a clear, digitised picture of their face.
Once the child’s details have been put into this section of the form, and it has been submitted, you will recieve a letter from the Home Office. This letter will tell you the date of an appointment which has been set up by the Home Office. You must attend this appointment, which will be at your local post office, to record your child’s biometric information.
You (the parent) must accompany the child to the appointment if they are under the age of 16. If neither of the child’s parents is available to accompany the child, another adult can take them. The reason for this must be explained in the form.
This section of the form is relatively straightforward. It requires both parents of the child to sign their consent on the form. This is just to ensure that the parents are aware and happy with the application.
If the child is making an application of their own behalf, they must also sign and consent their name on the form.
In this final section of the form, you will be asked to make a declaration which states that, to the best of the knowledge, you are aware that all information on the form is correct and honest.
This section should be signed and the boxes filled out so that the Home Office know who has completed the form and made the declaration.
The child registration for British Citizenship fees are as follows:
Registration (Form MN1) fee: £936
Biometric enrolment fee: £19.20
Yes, you can apply for British Citizenship online. This process allows you to use an online form, which asks questions which are relevent to you based on your answers to the questions you are asked. Using this form is simpler in some ways, at it will automatically skip irrelevent questions.
You can edit and save your application before it is submitted.
The British Citizenship form is applicable to children who qualify for British Citizenship through either birth or adoption.