United Kingdom - Info - British Citizenship and USA
Listen to our RECENT WEBINAR where our two British nationality experts - Philip Gamble and Mishal Patel - discuss a family birth in the United States and its implications for claims to British nationality in the modern day.
A birth in the United States of America does not normally give rights to British nationality, as it was treated as a "Foreign Country" for British nationality purposes ever since its independence. However, where a parent or grandparent was born in the UK, Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland, it is possible to have claims to British citizenship in the modern day.
The most common routes to British nationality for those born in the USA are as follows:
Born in UK to an American father
The most common routes to Irish nationality are as follows:
Parent Born in Ireland (including Northern Ireland)
Grandparent Born in Ireland (including Northern Ireland)
The UK, Ireland and the United States allow Dual nationality - the right to hold more than one citizenship.