Never in a
million years did I ever think I would hear myself saying that I wish our
daughters had rights to German citizenship. I was always more than adamant that they should be British and Spanish; just
like us.
As a
family, we are very much citizens of Europe. I am a British citizen (to one
Scottish and one English parent), born in Belgium. My husband is a Spanish
citizen, born in Spain. Our daughters were both born in Germany. I assumed that,
by default, our children would both be entitled to all three nationalities and be
able to choose their preferred European nationality at the age of 18. How wrong
was I!
Our
daughters, despite being born in Germany, are not entitled to the German
nationality. German nationality law is based on jus sanguinis. Citizenship is
not determined by place of birth in this case, but by having one or both
parents who are citizens of the German nation. You can naturalise as a German
citizen if you have been resident in Germany for at least eight years and possess
adequate knowledge of German, etc. Only then, after renouncing to your existing
nationality (Germany does not allow dual nationality, can both you, your spouse
and your children apply for citizenship. This contrasts with jus solis: right
of soil, which is applicable in the UK, meaning you are automatically entitled
to British citizenship if you were born there.
Neither my
husband nor I have been living for eight consecutive years in Germany, so
getting our hands on German passports for ourselves or our children is a no go.
No problem, we thought. When our first daughter was born, we got her a Spanish
passport. My husband would say this was by choice; I say it was because it was
cheap! Registration and a new Spanish passport at the time cost a mere 16
Euros. British registration and passport on the other hand was going to cost a
massive 300 Euros. The process was quick and efficient and we had the passport
within a month of our first daughter’s birth.
Two years
on with the birth of our second daughter, we wrongly assumed the process would
be similar. We not only need a new passport for our newborn, but a passport
renewal for our older daughter, whose passport has run out after two years. My
husband phoned the Spanish consulate to get an appointment to apply for the
passports. The earliest date he was offered was the end of May and the passports
would then arrive in July sometime. Due to the crisis and cuts, the process now
takes 4 months! This obviously isn’t really an issue if you don’t want to
travel, but we want to go to the UK before July and we planned to fly to Spain.
No problem,
we thought, third time lucky, we’ll just apply for the British one instead. I
phoned the consulate in Düsseldorf and was referred to the UK Border Agency. I
then found out just how complicated British nationality law is. Because I was
born abroad, I got my British citizenship by descent. This type of citizenship
cannot be passed down to your children when they are also born abroad. My
daughters therefore have to apply for British citizenship and be accepted
before any passport can be issued; a process which takes around 4 months.
So,
ironically, despite theoretically being entitled to three different European
nationalities, two of the countries have rejected us and the third won’t give
us a passport until the middle of the year. Luckily there is a (painful) solution
and that is to drive 16 hours to where my husband was last resident in Spain
and apply for the DNI (Spanish ID cards) which allow travel within Europe.
I am left with
a couple of open questions. What would have happened if my husband had also
been born abroad; would my children be stateless within a “united” Europe? Are
all three nationalities really equal at the end of the day or does one give you
more rights than the other? Perhaps the answers lie in an independent Scotland.
Forget about Germany, Spain, and Great Britain. Forget about Europe. Vote Yes Scotland, and become Scottish instead!
