Actually, Kyrgyz bureaucracy ain’t that bad….

In my previous post, I was scathingly critical of the Kyrgyz bureaucratic system. However, after having spent a day wading through the British Home Office’s website trying to find out whether my new son qualifies for British citizenship, I take it all back. From the land of Shakespeare, Milton and Dickens come exquisite paragraphs like this (an extract from the snappily titled Home Office document Guide MN1):

‘A child who comes within SECTION B and is registered becomes a British citizen by descent, whereas a child who comes within SECTION C becomes a British citizen otherwise than by descent. The difference may be important in future because a citizen otherwise than by descent automatically passes on British citizenship to his or her children who are born outside the United Kingdom, but a citizen by descent does not. A person who is registered as a citizen by descent cannot later be registered as a citizen otherwise than by descent. If therefore the child comes within SECTION B but the family intend to return to the United Kingdom the parents might consider it advisable to delay an application until the child qualifies for registration under SECTION C.’

When my son gets old enough to ask why he doesn’t have British Citizenship, I’ll point him wearily to this document….