Schengen visa for non-EU child travelling with UK national?

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Your child may be able to cross the border with secondary evidence of British nationality. Similarly, without asserting your child's British citizenship, your child may be able to cross the border with you under the freedom-of-movement directive (2004/38/EC). The relevant text, from Article 5 (emphasis added):

  1. Where a Union citizen, or a family member who is not a national of a Member State, does not have the necessary travel documents or, if required, the necessary visas, the Member State concerned shall, before turning them back, give such persons every reasonable opportunity to obtain the necessary documents or have them brought to them within a reasonable period of time or to corroborate or prove by other means that they are covered by the right of free movement and residence.

However, if you're planning to fly to France, your child will very likely be denied boarding unless she or he has a visa. The relevant text, also from Article 5:

  1. Family members who are not nationals of a Member State shall only be required to have an entry visa in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 or, where appropriate, with national law. For the purposes of this Directive, possession of the valid residence card referred to in Article 10 shall exempt such family members from the visa requirement.

    Member States shall grant such persons every facility to obtain the necessary visas. Such visas shall be issued free of charge as soon as possible and on the basis of an accelerated procedure.

Your child's ILR does not count as the "residence card referred to in Article 10." Therefore, to be safe, your child should apply at the appropriate French consulate for a Schengen visa as the family member of a Union citizen.

You will require the following evidence, whether applying at the border or at a consulate:

  • Your proof of British citizenship.
  • Your child's birth certificate, as proof of relationship
  • Your child's Indian passport, as proof of identity

In addition, if you apply for a visa, you will probably need proof of your address to show that you reside within the post's service area.

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