Elterngeld for English baby - Germany

I have a son on the way in March 2010. My fiance and I have been discussing the advantages of declaring the baby as English. I am English and she is German. I am assuming that we can choose the nationality of the baby? If we choose English and he gets and English passport here in Germany, will we still be entitled to elterngeld?

I am interested in people's opinions of the advantages of picking English over German. There are only a couple that I can think of, no "national service" or whatever it is called here, plus no need to carry around those ID cards. I don't think there is much difference between him having an English or a German passport, or is there?

Any feedback would be great.

Thanks.

Similar situation to our 20+ years ago except that we were married at the time of birth....

I believe NOT.
The child will be British (not English!) "by descent" on the grounds that you are the father (British).
The child will be German due to the mother (& being born here).

You can choose to request one passport or the other or both but to "get rid" of the other nationality you have to take steps (you cannot just ignore it & hope it "goes away").

There have been a number of threads on the subject of dual nationality / military service (use the SEARCH function).

Current status (given your opening statements) is that if the child is male he will be liable for military service here. As a British passport states, if you have dual nationality then the British passport does not shield you from obligations to the other state (or words to that effect).

Our son has just completed his German military service & enjoyed it so much that he extended for an additional 3 months. He is now studying....

So, if the child will be British and German, what passport and nationality does he have?

I really want to avoid the military service option as it is not something I believe in. Any suggestions?

Nationality: you answered your question in first half of the sentence.
Passport: whichever you apply for (or both). Not applying for a German passport does NOT mean the child is not German.

Get married and move to UK for the birth?

Thanks for the slightly sarcastic tone in your response! This is my first child, so all of this is very confusing and to be honest you haven't really answer my questions as it seems that the child does not really have a nationality. Surely, we have to pick a nationality?

Plus, you have not answered my question about elterngeld. I am at work and I don't have the time to go trawling through hundreds of posts about elterngeld, hence my post on here. So, if anybody else has any information about whether or not my son will be entitled to elterngeld that would be much appreciated.

NO!

To be clear I repeat part of post #2:

You can choose a passport but not the nationality (given the opening statement). To remove a nationality you will have to go through significant steps (not just "I do not want it for my son/daughter").

Interesting that you demand an answer rather than request one.

You are at work and supposedly don't have the time/patience to browse through the other posts which have already dealth with this topic in length and breadth, but expect the TT'ers to answer to you though it has already this topic has been covered?

I don't think this topic is soooo urgent that a cop might landup at your door step to arrest you and you are seeking help here. If we don't reply in 30 mins max then your life is doomed. Go home, read through the other posts and do a thorough research and if you still have questions then post it here tomorrow.

Don't expect us to help you when you are lazy to do your home work.

He will have dual citizenship. You can apply for both passports if you want to but only applying for one does not mean that he's not also a citizen of the other. It will not affect his kindergeld.

I think you will have to ask your kid later if *he* wants to avoid military service or not. If he grows up in Germany and all his buddies are going, he may actually want to go as well. This is also 20 years in the future so it may not even be mandatory by then, even if it is, he can easily avoid it by working in health care instead.

That is the usual response I expect from these type of forums. Surely the point of forums is to get information regarding a certain subject? Just because I don't have the time to spend all day looking through this website. If you don't like my post, don't post an answer, just ignore it. Hopefully there will be someone out there who completely understands and is helpful enough to post a response. Obviously that is not you.

Which is what I wrote in Post #2, #4 & #7.......

Incidently I am also at work........

Thanks LeonG.....see, not too difficult was it long-haul?

Ahh.. I for one thought this was your first time....

It is never difficult... So is using the search function too. But worse, before you post the topic, ignoring to post this under an already existing topic.

Edit: I can either go to a grocery shop and find the thing that i want or i can ask the helper there to find me something though it's right under my eye. Both are possible. But asking something knowing that you can do a search and find it, not appreciated here in TT.

The kid will be British and German. And this does not make a real difference when you apply for Elterngeld. The PARENTS nationality might make a difference.

LOL, really thick skin. People here are trying to help you, but no one here is an Eltergeld expert. You got a German fiance (sic), ask her to settle up the thing herself, she can go to office than handles Elternzeit in your town and get the correct information from the source and you do not have to waste your precious time here.

Welcome to TT. It seems to be all the rage!!!