My son is 16 and he is planning on moving from the U.S. to england when he is 18.?

Question

I am wondering ive been told it is a good idea to maintain a duel citizenship and what i want to no is how would i go about getting him citizenship for the UK? Oh and in case your wondering we have already checked and we have no family history from the UK. We have helped him check it out and he's sure that's what he wants to do.

Answer 1

Check with the nearest UK embassy for the real scoop.

Answer 2

He is not "moving" to the UK when he turns 18!  If he wants to go to university in the UK, gets accepted and gets a student visa, he can stay while he goes to school.  This assumes you can finance his education and his living expenses until he graduates, Mom.

Otherwise, he'll need to be 21, have an education and career that will support him, and apply for immigration -- then sit in the US and wait until he is accepted and gets an immigration visa.

Answer 3

Moving is a bit more than just packing a suitcase and flying over.  Kind of like an 18 yo. kid in Mexico who wants to move to the US.  It's not so easy to get citizenship somewhere just because you want one.

Your son is still a kid, he may have changed his mind already in 2 years.  If not, unless you can afford to send him to university in England, you can look into BUNAC visa, http://www.bunac.org/usa/workinbritain/ or let him do some child care classes and go as an au-pair and yes, boys do that too, the husband of my niece spent a year in the US as au-pair and it's quite helpful now that they have kids.  Anyway, good luck :)

Answer 4

You can't have dual citizenship if you have no family relationship with another country.  

If he wants to go live in England at 18, the best thing he can probably do is check out schools and coleges there and get an student visa approved.  The only other visa he could get is a tourist visa which would give him 6 months (it's actually a visa waiver because the USA doesn't need to get a visa BUT if he just showed up with a return ticket and no money to support himself for 6 months they'd probably refse him entry).  

A student visa will give him a few years to see if he really likes living in England.  He doesn't need to apply to universities necessarily - there are lots of further education colleges that run even part-time evening courses, like associates degrees (digital video editing, photography, visual arts, music - anything he's into).  They cost a LOT less than international students going to university.  

You can check the UK embassy visa website for more information but if he decided to take this route, he'd need to find a course and apply for it, then the college will help with his visa application.  And he should do it in good time - before April of the year he'd want to enrol.  Also, he may get help through the college with accommodation and perhaps private funding to help with living costs.  International students can work up to 20 hours a week - something like that.  

I can't think of any other way they'll let him enter because he'd need to be resident in the UK for at least 3 years before he could apply for citzenship and if he tries to apply for anything remotely like this from the USA it can take years and he would definitely not be allowed entry until the application process was completed.