What? I'm British?

Tomorrow night MissM and I are on a plane to Sydney to finalise our UK visa application with G.

It's been nearly 7 weeks since he left for Sydney to start the process while working UK hours, sorting out 'stuff'. You can feel the excitement in the air.

My telephone call with G yesterday afternoon:

G: Can you please bring our marriage certificate with you?
Me: Yes.
G: And MissM's birth certificate.
Me: Yes.
G: Do you have your dad's birth certificate?
Me: No. Why?
G: What about your parents marriage certificate?
Me: No. Why would I have that?
G: OK, we'll have to order them.
Me: WHY?
G: Oh, sorry. The lawyers have told me that you're visa application is going to be rejected.
Me: WT????????????????? (and laughing at the same time, cos this move has been horrendous in so many ways)
G: You have a legal birthright to be British and so that's what you'll get. Not a visa.
Me: Pardon?
G: You can have a thing called a Right to Abode, but not the T2 you usually get.
Me; Which one's better? What's the difference?
G: From what I understand, the British passport is better cos in a few years, MissM and I can apply too because of you which makes moving around EU so much easier.
Me: Oh. Ok then. British it is, but I'm still Australian!
G: Yes. You're not giving that up - just gaining the other
Me: O-kay ... guess so then.


Apparently he'd been dealing with this new issue for a day or so in Sydney and wanted to wait til he had all the facts before sharing it with me.

Dad was born in Scotland and therefore I am ENTITLED to be British and will be granted a RIGHT TO ABIDE (abode?) status/passport and not a mere T2 visa.

The odd thing is, I had one when we were here for Adventure No3. Apparently birthright trumps work visa's and possibly someone made a mistake last time cos apparently I should not have received the visa two years ago.

Can you imagine how it feels to be told you HAVE to become another nationality, just like that. It's hilarious, if it wasn't so serious.

Now that I've calmed down, I can see there are huge advantages to this discovery that this is happening but the fact that I am being TOLD irks me somewhat.

In addition to all the paperwork that has already been submitted, we now have to order things like Dad's birth certificate and have it priority posted to Australia to prove he was indeed born in Scotland; Mum and Dad's marriage certificate to prove he married mum, and my birth certificate to prove he is on my birth certificate as my father, tho of course, you can father a child without being married so this one's lost on me. Once all this is obtained, submitted and approved, I'm British.

Who knew it was that darn easy?

G and MissM will have the visa stamped in their passports while I'll come back with nothing different in my passport, and a heap of paperwork to submit here in the UK on our return.

The benefit to this lat minute chaos is that after a year or so, G and MissM can apply for same British status, based on the fact he's married to moi, and she's my daughter. It'll come  in very handy for MissM if she wants to go to uni/college in the UK, or work here.

My god son and my younger cousin are really miffed cos they would LOVE to be able to do what I've done and work/live in the UK but have to go thru the long process as no parents were born in UK so there's no birthright.

Any of you have a direct parental birthright to the UK?

Apparently, they WANT you!

Has anything like this happened to you? What did you do?