I'm British! [Archive] - MacRumors Forums

Mr. Anderson

May 3, 2005, 09:18 PM

I just went over to the British embassy here in Washington and affirmed my allegiance to the Queen this morning, and now I'm a British citizen. I got me a certificate and everything.

Um, so why is this a good thing? Were you British at one point or are you parents British but you weren't?

Sounds like fun, though.

Congrats!

D

miloblithe

May 3, 2005, 09:21 PM

is that all you have to do?!?

No no. My mother was born in England and has British citizenship, although she hasn't lived there since about 1948. Because she's British, I automatically recieve British citizenship if I bother to apply for it (and pay through the nose for it--in total $370 or so). I'm a dual citizen now. I didn't renounce my US citizenship or anything.

The motivation is that dual citizenship offers a number of opportunities, most importantly to work in England and anywhere in the EU. Another motivation was the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November , and the previous first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and, I fear, upcoming Tuesdays in November. In the long run, I might prefer to be European (to the extent I could ever be, given that I will always be an American). I like being in Europe and I have a lot of relatives and friends there.

PlaceofDis

May 3, 2005, 09:23 PM

ah okay, thats cool, and i totally understand your reasoning behind it as well. congrats!

roadapple

May 3, 2005, 10:30 PM

Lately I have been thinking about how valuable my US citizenship is. Is it measurable? Maybe 20 years of earnings? Guess it depends on what the alternative is.

While I have great respect for many nations (Canada/GB), and of course have many criticisms of my own, I could never fathom taking an oath to another nation.

Guitarius

May 3, 2005, 10:34 PM

I wish I were British. Hell. I wish I was anywhere but where I'm at. I ****ing hate Louisiana.

wrc fan

May 3, 2005, 10:37 PM

You lucky bastard! Grrr! Why oh why is there only a one generational limit?

Anyway, if you want your children to have British citizenship make sure they're born in the UK.

Jaffa Cake

May 4, 2005, 03:13 AM

So... will you get the chance to vote tomorrow? :D

skunk

May 4, 2005, 03:20 AM

Many congratulations! It may have taken over 200 years for you to realize the folly of your earlier decision, but better late than never. Don't waste your vote! :D

Have a cup of tea to celebrate!

garybUK

May 4, 2005, 03:24 AM

You lucky bastard! Grrr! Why oh why is there only a one generational limit?

Anyway, if you want your children to have British citizenship make sure they're born in the UK.

At least the hospital will be free.....

Applespider

May 4, 2005, 03:30 AM

I just went over to the British embassy here in Washington and affirmed my allegiance to the Queen this morning, and now I'm a British citizen. I got me a certificate and everything.

Congrats... I don't recall ever affirming my allegiance to the Queen unless I did it while signing my passport applications.

Have a toasted crumpet with your tea!

miloblithe

May 4, 2005, 08:59 AM

So... will you get the chance to vote tomorrow? :D

I'm not exactly sure where my local polling station is...

No. I'm not registered to vote. I don't even know how that works. I don't have a passport yet either (It'll take about a month to process), just a certificate that says 'citizen'.

_bnkr612

May 4, 2005, 09:15 AM

I'm a dual citizen. So I half like America. Half of me would die for this country.

edesignuk

May 4, 2005, 09:22 AM

I hope you're good at queuing...

miloblithe

May 4, 2005, 09:31 AM

I hope you're good at queuing...

I once renewed my drivers license in Washington on a day when the Department of Motor Vehicles' computers were down.

Man that was a fun day.

Nickygoat

May 4, 2005, 09:54 AM

At least the hospital will be free.....
There's a reason for that ;)

drewyboy

May 4, 2005, 10:18 AM

I wonder if I could sell my citizenship on eBay... lol, jk. I think America is good enough for me. But seriouslly, weird things sell on ebay. :rolleyes:

virividox

May 4, 2005, 10:45 AM

I hope you're good at queuing...

iv been in the uk for almost 2 years...if theres one thing brits are good at its queing :D

so orderly...

MacsRgr8

May 4, 2005, 04:03 PM

iv been in the uk for almost 2 years...if theres one thing brits are good at its queing :D

so orderly...

That's one thing the Dutch should learn to do.

Applespider

May 4, 2005, 04:17 PM

iv been in the uk for almost 2 years...if theres one thing brits are good at its queing :D

so orderly...

Unless it's for a bus in Central London where it's a free for all... ;)

I'd say as a country we were better at whingeing*... :eek:

Interesting - OS X's spellchecker says I've spelt whingeing wrong but that's how the OS X Dictionary app wants me to do it

noel4r

May 4, 2005, 04:24 PM

What's "whingeing"?

Applespider

May 4, 2005, 04:37 PM

As the Dictionary puts it

CelticBhoy

May 4, 2005, 04:39 PM

What's "whingeing"?

having a good moan

a Victor Meldrew type character

Actually, I feel sorry for the guy who's become a Brit. A Scot ... now, that's better !

miloblithe

May 4, 2005, 04:41 PM

Words like "wingeing" might present something of an obstacle to me moving to England and continuing my previous career as a writer or editor...

Damn British English. Bane of my existence. :)

Applespider

May 4, 2005, 04:57 PM

Damn British English. Bane of my existence. :)

But that definition is from the Oxford American Dictionary... :D

And it doesn't even come with the 'Brit:' tag that some of the other words in the OAD have... try all those old favourites like boot and fanny.

Actually...I've just tried some relatively obscure words and it's doing a darned impressive job! Minging and scunnered are fully catered for in Tiger! :eek:

brap

May 4, 2005, 05:06 PM

iv been in the uk for almost 2 years...if theres one thing brits are good at its queing :D

so orderly...You've never had to catch a National Express, have you :eek: ;)

BakedBeans

May 4, 2005, 05:12 PM

There's a reason for that ;)

labour?

;)

damn us brits, were a good bunch, many of us would happily swap bognor rigis or basingstoke for florida keys or California though

CTerry

May 4, 2005, 05:32 PM

Welcome to the club sir. Now you can look down on your American copatriots as inferior beings the way the rest of us Brits and Europeans do.

Mr. Durden

May 4, 2005, 05:57 PM

Welcome to the club sir. Now you can look down on your American copatriots as inferior beings the way the rest of us Brits and Europeans do.

WTF does that mean?

mac-er

May 4, 2005, 06:35 PM

It really amazes me how people do things without doing research. According to US law, by pledging allegience to another government, you have de facto renounced your US citizenship.

Section 349 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, states that nationals of the United States, whether by birth or naturalization, are subject to loss of citizenship if they perform certain acts voluntarily. Briefly stated, these acts include:

1. Obtaining naturalization in a foreign state
(Sec. 349(a)(1) INA);

2. Taking an oath, affirmation or other formal declaration to a foreign state or its political subdivisions Sec. 349(a)(2) INA);

3. Entering or serving in the armed forces of a foreign state engaged in hostilities against the U.S. or serving as a commissioned or non-commissioned officer in the armed forces of a foreign state (Sec. 349(a)(3) INA);

4. Accepting employment with a foreign government if:
(A) one has the nationality of that foreign state or
(B) a declaration of allegiance is required in accepting the position (Sec. 349(a)(4) INA);

5. Formally renouncing U.S. citizenship before a U.S. consular officer outside the United States (Sec. 349(a)(5) INA);

6. Formally renouncing U.S. citizenship within the U.S. (but only in time of war) (Sec. 349 (a)(6) INA);

7. Conviction for an act of treason (Sec. 349(a)(7) INA).

Congratulations. You are no longer an American citizen.

mac-er

May 4, 2005, 06:37 PM

Welcome to the club sir. Now you can look down on your American copatriots as inferior beings the way the rest of us Brits and Europeans do.

Yep. Without us, you all would be pledging allegience to Hitler.

thequicksilver

May 4, 2005, 06:40 PM

Yep. Without us, you all would be pledging allegience to Hitler.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

wrc fan

May 4, 2005, 06:43 PM

It really amazes me how people do things without doing research. According to US law, by pledging allegience to another government, you have de facto renounced your US citizenship.

Congratulations. You are no longer an American citizen.

you really need to look at the facts first before flaming someone. The US will let you have dual citizenship if you were born with it. If he was not a British citizen from birth and had done this he would loose his US citizenship (but for him to do that he'd have to be living in the UK not in DC, so even if you hadn't read all the facts you should have at least noticed that).

skunk

May 4, 2005, 06:47 PM

Yep. Without us, you all would be pledging allegience to Hitler.<yawn>

wrc fan

May 4, 2005, 06:48 PM

Yep. Without us, you all would be pledging allegience to Hitler.

Actually without "us" Hitler never would have gained power since WWI... er The Great War would most likely still be going on with a stalemate in eastern France (ok it might've ended eventually, but I'm over-exagerating here for effect). And because of that the Germans wouldn't have been disgruntled with the harsh penalties they recieved and the National Socialist party would not have gained power... in fact Hitler might've even been killed in the extended war. So really, it's all the US's fault. :p :D

mac-er

May 4, 2005, 06:49 PM

you really need to look at the facts first before flaming someone. The US will let you have dual citizenship if you were born with it. If he was not a British citizen from birth and had done this he would loose his US citizenship (but for him to do that he'd have to be living in the UK not in DC, so even if you hadn't read all the facts you should have at least noticed that).

If you were born with it, why would you need to go pledge allegiance now?

mac-er

May 4, 2005, 06:50 PM

Actually without "us" Hitler never would have gained power since WWI... er The Great War would most likely still be going on with a stalemate in eastern France (ok it might've ended eventually, but I'm over-exagerating here for effect). And because of that the Germans wouldn't have been disgruntled with the harsh penalties they recieved and the National Socialist party would not have gained power... in fact Hitler might've even been killed in the extended war. So really, it's all the US's fault. :p :D

Not wanting to start a political thread, but WWII was partly result of European appeasement of Hitler.

wrc fan

May 4, 2005, 06:54 PM

If you were born with it, why would you need to go pledge allegiance now?

I don't really know why he needed it, I guess it's some formallity the British required... I do know that the Italian one doesn't require any sort of oath or alligance if you were always a citizen. But anyway, that law only applies to gaining your citizenship to another country through natralization and not through birth, and he stated his mom was born in England, so that means he was a British citizen by birth.

wrc fan

May 4, 2005, 06:54 PM

Not wanting to start a political thread, but WWII was partly result of European appeasement of Hitler.

true true. I was just trying to be humorous. :)

mac-er

May 4, 2005, 06:55 PM

<yawn>
You can "yawn" all you want, but Churchill was the one who wrote FDR and told him the British government was bankrupt and would be overtaken by Hilter unless the American government intervened.

Anyways, CTerry's comment that all Brits and Europeans find Americans inferior is inappropriate and racist.

skunk

May 4, 2005, 07:15 PM

You can "yawn" all you want, but Churchill was the one who wrote FDR and told him the British government was bankrupt and would be overtaken by Hilter unless the American government intervened.

"Not wanting to start a political thread..", eh? Go ahead if you feel you need a rehash of the whole argument, but not in this one. "Yep. Without us, you all would be pledging allegience to Hitler" is such a tedious knee-jerk response. Who is this "us"? Did you fight?

Anyways, CTerry's comment that all Brits and Europeans find Americans inferior is inappropriate and racist.
I agree that the argument was triggered by an equally fatuous and inflammatory assertion by one of "us", but this will not improve anything.

wrc fan

May 4, 2005, 07:35 PM

Anyways, CTerry's comment that all Brits and Europeans find Americans inferior is inappropriate and racist.

I agree that the argument was triggered by an equally fatuous and inflammatory assertion by one of "us", but this will not improve anything.

I believe that CTerry was joking. Although he didn't put any smiley's or anything. :)

MyLeftNut

May 4, 2005, 07:43 PM

Welcome to the club sir. Now you can look down on your American copatriots as inferior beings the way the rest of us Brits and Europeans do.

Welcome to British humour guys...and welcome to the Commonwealth where you too can feel inferior to your longstanding overlords! ;)

miloblithe

May 4, 2005, 10:24 PM

It really amazes me how people do things without doing research. According to US law, by pledging allegience to another government, you have de facto renounced your US citizenship.

Congratulations. You are no longer an American citizen.

Nope.

1978 citizenship law amendments (Pub.L. 95-432)

"The most significant change made by Pub.L. 99-653 was to the preamble of Section 349 of the Immigration and Nationality Act [8 USC § 1481]. The revised wording made it clear that an action, in order to result in loss of citizenship, needed to be performed voluntarily and with the intention of giving up US citizenship. This change brought the law into line with the Supreme Court's ruling in Vance v. Terrazas."

A person wishing to renounce his or her U.S. citizenship must voluntarily and with intent to relinquish U.S. citizenship:

appear in person before a U.S. consular or diplomatic officer,
in a foreign country (normally at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate); and
sign an oath of renunciation
Renunciations that do not meet the conditions described above have no legal effect. Because of the provisions of section 349(a)(5), Americans cannot effectively renounce their citizenship by mail, through an agent, or while in the United States. In fact, U.S. courts have held certain attempts to renounce U.S. citizenship to be ineffective on a variety of grounds, as discussed below.

http://travel.state.gov/law/citizenship/citizenship_776.html

wrc fan

May 4, 2005, 10:29 PM

miloblithe

May 4, 2005, 10:35 PM

wrc fan

May 4, 2005, 10:43 PM

They will definitely check where she was born (it's on the form), but I'm not sure that matters. Is she a British citizen?

My mom's been British her whole life (and American, having lived here from age 3) and has had numerous British passports.

No she's not, but she qualifies the same way as you as her mom was born in Scotland, never naturalized, and was widowed when my mom was still a child. Did they make you show your mom's birth certificate? The main reason I'm asking is cause I read one post from someone that claimed all they had to do was show the passport of their parent... so I'm trying to see if that was a lie or maybe they're just that negligent.

wrc fan

May 4, 2005, 10:54 PM

I was just looking back at the thread I started (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=111801), and you said you had just applied on Feb 22 (http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=1289115&postcount=23), now it's May 4. So it took about 3 months?

gekko513

May 4, 2005, 11:27 PM

As the Dictionary puts it
I think the dot in whinge*ing means that -ing is just the, what do you call it in english, post-dangle-on :confused: ;) that should be used in the present something form, when you use the "dangle-on" you should only use the "core" of the word, "whing" and add "ing", making up the word whinging: Am I making any sense at all?? Probably not ...

oh, well, here's from dictionary.reference.com:
"whinge P Pronunciation Key (hwnj, wnj)
intr.v. Chiefly British whinged, whing·ing, whing·es"

Interestingly dictionary.reference.com also has a dot even though they spell out the whole word in it's different forms.

barneygumble

May 4, 2005, 11:49 PM

another whinging pom, i hope you complain bitterly about yuor woeful cricket team to anyone who will listen, or just not care like a good pom

MyLeftNut

May 5, 2005, 01:59 AM

Now. Barney mate. That wasn't really necessary was it? :p

SpaceMagic

May 5, 2005, 02:55 AM

Hey peeps,

Another Brit :D cool. Dual nationality is excellent, reap the benefits. I'm dual with Italy, and recently got a voting card saying they'd PAY for me to go to Roma and vote! Haha. I didn't though. My dad's italian and we (me and two sisters) were registered at birth.

If you're coming to live over here though AND be a writer, we need to help you brush up on your English English :p This site can help http://english2american.com/

Otherwise ask the UK community in here!

PS. Pledging allegience to the queen?! Dodgy! I didn't do that, did I? I must have when signing my own passport... wonder if i pledged alliegence to Pasta when I signed my Italian one :rolleyes:

skunk

May 5, 2005, 03:03 AM

post-dangle-onThat'd be "suffix"...
:rolleyes:

Applespider

May 5, 2005, 03:36 AM

oh, well, here's from dictionary.reference.com:
"whinge P Pronunciation Key (hwnj, wnj)
intr.v. Chiefly British whinged, whing·ing, whing·es"

Interestingly dictionary.reference.com also has a dot even though they spell out the whole word in it's different forms.

Interesting. I started off with whinging because it 'looked' right to my eyes. But then, in the interests of forum comprehension, I checked it in the Dictionary app to see if people could get a translation if they were unfamiliar with the word. And it didn't appear in there until I put the 'e' in.

brap

May 5, 2005, 03:37 AM

another whinging pom, i hope you complain bitterly about yuor woeful cricket team to anyone who will listen, or just not care like a good pomCriminal. Colonial. Scum.

;)

CTerry

May 5, 2005, 06:35 AM

I believe that CTerry was joking. Although he didn't put any smiley's or anything. :)
I was indeed joking. I apologise profusely for not using smileys and making it blatantly obvious. :rolleyes:

crap freakboy

May 5, 2005, 08:22 AM

Criminal. Colonial. Scum.

;)
lol

I've always seen Aussies as northerners with suntans wearing 80's clothing.
:)

hvfsl

May 5, 2005, 08:30 AM

Well on the plus side, if you ever require an expensive operation, you could always fly to the UK and get it for free. ;)

Abstract

May 5, 2005, 10:21 AM

I was wondering what proof of your mother's citizenship do you need. I wonder if my mom got her citizenship and I went in with her passpost would they not bother checking where she was born? (I wish :( )

Yeah, me too. My mum was born in Hong Kong, which was a British colony when my mum was born, meaning she has a British birth certificate (I believe).

Does that mean I can walk over to the British embassy and pledge my allegiance to the Queen and Britain? :confused:

Dont Hurt Me

May 5, 2005, 10:29 AM

I just went over to the British embassy here in Washington and affirmed my allegiance to the Queen this morning, and now I'm a British citizen. I got me a certificate and everything.
What does the queen have to do with anything? though congrats on the british thing, im british also & german & french......you know us Americans. :D