HMC
CHILDREN OF BOC'S
Reference.......
30% 346./2
1.
Children of a father who holds a British Overseas citizen passport (or both parents) face a number of difficulties in Abu Dhabi:
"
2.
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)
although the father may have been born in India or Aden these countries will not issue a passport to the child as the father no longer has their nationality;
often the mother is Indian but the Indian authorities will not issue a passport as Indian Nationality does not pass through the female line;
the UAE authorities will not issue a passport to a child whose father is not a UAE citizen;
the parents are not able to register the child for a school unless the child has a passport of its own or is included on one of its parents passports;
the parents face difficulty in obtaining a health card for the child as it doesnt have a passport;
we often add the child to the fathers or mother's BOC passport and restrict validity to 6 months pending a solution to the problem of the childs status, this restricts the ability of the family to travel frequently and occasionally causes problems with local immigration who query the restriction.
In a country like the UAE a passport is the basic means of identification and although the UAE authorities do not normally place the family under any pressure to leave the country they face many administrative difficulties in getting anything done for the child without a passport. The authorities do not understand why a child is stateless when its father holds a British passport.
16 November 1986
RD Elliott
British Vice Consul
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