Thread: british passport

Originally Posted by PhilipA

despite the UK hanging Australia out to dry when they joined the EEC, and having Australians join the Aliens and Others queue at immigration.

Regards Philip A

Not for nothing has Britain been referred to as "perfidious Albion". Two- faced, devious, and self-interested describes their foreign policy.

The little off-shore islands of Europe will become irrelevant when the USA decides it no longer needs the aircraft carrier USS British Isles.

I apologise for any offence to Brits.
I was thinking about it last night and the best way i can describe it is.

A passport is not just a piece of paper that lets you get through customs easily. It is recognition of citizenship of a country which has both rights and responsibilities.

As such it should not be a lightly taken decision to obtain another passport
( although many people do). If I have highlighted that fact then I will take the flak gladly.

I guess 10 years as an Australian diplomat and being indirectly involved with several issues regarding visas, citizenship etc have reinforced my opinions. I must say I didn't think about it much before I represented Australia either.
Regards Philip A

Originally Posted by PhilipA

I apologise for any offence to Brits.
I was thinking about it last night and the best way i can describe it is.

A passport is not just a piece of paper that lets you get through customs easily. It is recognition of citizenship of a country which has both rights and responsibilities.

As such it should not be a lightly taken decision to obtain another passport
( although many people do). If I have highlighted that fact then I will take the flak gladly.

I guess 10 years as an Australian diplomat and being indirectly involved with several issues regarding visas, citizenship etc have reinforced my opinions. I must say I didn't think about it much before I represented Australia either.
Regards Philip A

I would like to say that getting a passport is not taken lightly by me and I would like to think by anyone else.........I spent a couple of years getting here.....a couple of years here trying to become a citizen, in the mean time saying goodbye to my country of birth and ALL my family...I would imagine like others becoming a citizen is NOT taken lightly as I think you will find so many people give up so many things in their lives to become one.

hence why not being loyal hits a few people a little bit deeper than maybe you anticipated.

I gave up a lot to come here! do I regret it NOT for a second.....Do I want to give up my britsih passport not for a second.....would I if it was a case that I needed to, of course I would....

This has certainly deteriorated into a bit of a slanging match which was something I thought wouldn't happen on here, but was obviously wrong. Cetainly I'd have another British passport if one still existed, but as the only thing I can get is an EU one, I'll go without thankyou.
Anyway as I'm not intending to return in the near future (if ever) I'm not going to bother about it at all and it would only have been for the convenience of missing the aliens queue.
The entry rules changed against all Commonwealth countries after Britain entered the EU and was forced upon them by the rules of that crap organisation.
It wasn't an abandonment most of the British wanted I'm sure of that.
We saw the loyalty some migrants have for Australia not many years ago....they were waving there Aussie passports and ranting about John Howard not doing enough to rescue them from the Lebanon when they were living there with no intention of returning, until the fighting broke out! Spending the benefits bestowed on them by the generosity of the taxpayer.
That's the sort of loyalty we can do without.
Alan.

There was an article in yesterday's Sydney Daily Telegraph about the UK imposing more restrictions on Australians being employed in the UK in the wake of the economic downturn. It might be worth searching for it.

A UK passport may be advantageous if you want to work there.

Late edit: Here we are: http://jonjayray.wordpress.com/2009/...rk-in-britain/

This is turning into an interesting thread.

There is a difference between obtaining citizenship by choice - applying for citizenship of a new country, and having or obtaining citizenship of more than one country by descent. Apply for citizenship of a new country often includes some kind of declaration of loyalty to the new country, and sometimes renunciation of all other citizenships. Citizenship by descent doesn't include the renunciation of other citizenships.

I hold citizenship to three countries by birth.

I came across an awful situation that a friend's children were in that, I thought, showed up the Australian Government in a very bad light.

Both of the parents were permanent residents since children, but neither naturalised - One UK, one NZ. Children were both born in Australia and given Australian birth certificates. When the girls were teenagers they planned to go overseas and applied for passports. Australian Government told them that they weren't eligible for passports, weren't citizens, and told them to get their passports elsewhere.

It strikes me as one of the worst things that could happen to you, being told that you aren't a citizen of the country you were born in and lived in all of your life.

I think the situation was resolved by the girls applying for citizenship.

Simon

Both of the parents were permanent residents since children, but neither naturalised - One UK, one NZ. Children were both born in Australia and given Australian birth certificates. When the girls were teenagers they planned to go overseas and applied for passports. Australian Government told them that they weren't eligible for passports, weren't citizens, and told them to get their passports elsewhere.

It strikes me as one of the worst things that could happen to you, being told that you aren't a citizen of the country you were born in and lived in all of your life.

I wasn't going to respond again BUT.

This changed in about 1985. prior to this , if a child was born in Australia it automatically gained citizenship.

However this provision came to be WIDELY abused by pregnant "holidaymakers" who would come to Australia , then claim they were too sick to return home, have the baby (often on a friend's medicare card), then they would have a "bolthole" when they got old.

I personally know of an instance of this where my records clerk in Riyadh applied for a visa to Australia for a holiday.

The Consul noticed that his son had a US passport, and asked if his wife was pregnant again?

On the response that she was, the visa was refused.

This person of South Asian origin, now lives in the USA, courtesy of the son's citizenship and family reunion.

South Asians are adept at driving trucks through our laws, as they have to wily to survive in their own country.
Regard sPhilip A

The govt. business enterprise for which I used to work, the Overseas Telecommunications Commission (Australia), had a submarine cable station on Guam. Several kids were born to staff stationed there. Those kids have dual Australian-US citizenship and US Passports.