Can you get a permanent residence in the UK? Child citizenship compared with two paths ILR

Register a minor child for British nationality, now £1,000.

The Home Office fee schedule, effective April 8, 2026, reduced this item from £1,214 to £1,000, which is a rare reduction on the entire list. On the same list, the application for settlement for dependents (ILR) is £3,226 per person, with no discounted rate for minor children or a family cap. These two figures together represent the most common dilemma faced by families with children born in the UK.

What license do parents hold at the moment of birth?

The only criterion under Section 1(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981 is that at the time of the child's birth, the father or mother is a British citizen, or has settled status (such as permanent residency or other status not subject to immigration conditions). If either condition is met, the child automatically acquires British citizenship at birth, without needing to submit any application, and can directly apply for a UK passport. If the parents were holding a limited-time visa such as Skilled Worker, student, or spouse visa, the child will neither be a British citizen nor obtain settlement status due to birthplace.

The birth certificate issued in the UK does not indicate nationality; it is merely a birth registration and does not serve as proof of nationality.

Parents obtained permanent residency after the child was born, following paragraph 1(3): the child was born in the UK, and one of the parents later became a British citizen or obtained settled status. Before the age of 18, the child has the right to register for citizenship using form MN1. This is an entitlement, and the Home Office cannot arbitrarily refuse it if the conditions are met. However, it requires an active application and payment of fees, and it does not automatically take effect with the parents' permanent residency approval. The only exception close to "automatic" is on the EU Settlement Scheme side: according to relevant regulations in 2021, in some cases, the parents' granted settled status after the child's birth can be considered as having been settled at the time of birth.

Should I first apply for ILR, or wait until the parents get permanent residency to register?

My judgment: For families where the child was born in the UK and the parents are currently applying for permanent residency, it is not necessary to specially apply for permanent residency with a fee of £3,226 just to "stabilize the status". It is more cost-effective and time-saving to save the budget and time for the subsequent registration after the parents' application is approved. The end result is also more thorough. Children under 18 years old do not need to take the Life in the UK test or English test when registering for citizenship.

There are two exceptions. First, if there is an unavoidable trip in the next year: the child does not have a valid leave to remain, and after leaving the country, they need to re-apply for an entry visa to return to the UK, and overseas processing is usually slower than domestic processing, making it difficult to arrange the whole family's flights; such families should keep the child with a valid dependent visa for a period of time. Second, if the child is approaching 18 years old, but the parents' permanent residency timeline is still uncertain, the registration window will close upon the child's birthday. If you are unsure which category you fall into, you can pay £5 on justiscript.com to get a written response from a qualified British lawyer within 24 hours regarding this issue.

The parents have not yet processed it, and the child has a ten-year road of his own.

Article 1(4) does not consider the parents' status: Those born in the UK on or after 1 January 1983, aged over 10 years, who have left the UK for no more than 90 days each year during their first ten years of life, and meet the good character requirements, can register using Form T, with a fee of £1,000. If the child is over 18 years old before the decision is made, an additional £130 naturalisation ceremony fee applies.

Guide T (February 2026 edition) specifies the discretionary lines beyond 90 days: absence of no more than 180 days in any given year, and a total of no more than 990 days over ten years, are usually exempted; if the absence exceeds these numbers but the reason is uncontrollable (such as serious illness), it may be considered; if the parents are unaware of this requirement, or the absence is entirely voluntary, it is usually not exempted.

This step is easy to miss: over the past ten years, the age is divided by birthday years, with the first year counted from the birth date to the first birthday, not by calendar years. For families who plan to keep this as an option, they should keep tickets, boarding records and passport pages from the child's birth, and each time they return home for a visit, they should stay within 90 days, which is much easier than gathering evidence retrospectively ten years later.

Another boundary that is easy to confuse: children of parents without permanent residency may still meet the requirements of paragraph 1(4); conversely, parents obtaining permanent residency will not automatically complete the child's registration. The two paths are independently verified.

The last thing to mention, which will ease the sense of urgency above: children born in the UK with no documents at all remaining in the UK do not constitute illegal residence. Part 8 of the Immigration Rules paragraphs 305 to 308 are a channel for families wanting to regularize their status, not a requirement that each child must obtain a permit. The only real point at which there is a cost is on the day of departure. Therefore, this matter can be arranged calmly, just make sure it doesn't clash with an already booked ticket.

[Data source] GOV.UK "Home Office immigration and nationality fees, 8 April 2026"; Home Office "Registration as British citizen: children"; Home Office "Guide T" February 2026 edition (www.gov.uk searchable).

This document is for reference only. For specific issues, please consult a licensed attorney.

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