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British Nationality Case Study: British Subject by Descent
November 30, 2011
Application for Registration as a British Citizen under Section 4c of the British Nationality Act 1981 as amended by Section 45 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act of 2009.
Below is a letter written by one of our UK Nationality partners on behalf of a client who qualified for one of the five forms of British Nationality. To protect the identity of the client, their name has been redacted but all other information is unchanged.
Summary
Application for Registration as a British Citizen under Section 4c of the British Nationality Act 1981 as amended by Section 45 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act of 2009. Click here for more information on British Nationality by Descent and Registration as British Citizen (4C) as supplied by Whatpassport.com.
The Letter to the UK Home Office
Dear Sir/ Madam,
We refer to the new Section 4C of the British Nationality Act 1981.
Section 2 states that all applicants must be born before 01/01/83. This is indeed the case (please see the attached certified copy of her passport and her original birth certificate).
Section 3 gives three sets of criteria for applicants in different positions. In this case, Subsection 3(a) applies to our client as she was born after commencement of the British Nationality Act 1948 (01/01/49).
Subsection (a) of Section 3 states that the applicant would acquire Citizenship of the UK and Colonies if ‘Assumption A’ had applied. ‘Assumption A’ is that the law at the time would have allowed for Citizenship of the UK and Colonies to be passed down the female line as well as the male line by virtue of, inter alia, Section 5 or Section 12(2) of the British Nationality Act 1948.
In our client’s case, her mother was born in the Mombasa, in 1946. She was therefore a British Protected Person at birth. Her father (i.e. maternal grandfather to our client) was born in Edenburg, Orange Free State. The Orange Free State fell within the Crown’s Dominions at this time; therefore our client maternal grandfather became a British Subject at his birth and her mother became a British Subject by descent. Section 12(3) of the British Nationality Act 1948 states that a British Subject, being born in a place which on 1/1/49 remained a British Protectorate, would become a Citizen of the UK and Colonies. Hillary therefore became a Citizen of the UK and Colonies on 1/1/49 as Mombasa was a British Protectorate on 1/1/49.
Section 12(8) of the British Nationality Act 1948 makes it clear that a person reclassified as a Citizen of the UK and Colonies by virtue of section 12(3) would become such a citizen ‘otherwise than by descent’. It therefore follows naturally that our client herself would also become a Citizen of the UK and Colonies by virtue of section 5 of the British Nationality Act 1948 had it been possible at the time for such Citizenship to be transferred by descent in the female line as well as the male line. We would therefore respectfully submit that our client meets the criteria of Section 3.
Section 4 shows that had the applicant become a Citizen of the UK and Colonies as above in Section 3, the applicant would also have held the Right of Abode under our Immigration Act of 1971. In this case, our client would have held the Right of Abode under section 2(1)(b)(ii) of the Immigration Act 1971 by virtue of her maternal grandmother who held Citizenship of the UK and Colonies by birth in the UK.
Section 5 describes how where the parent of the applicant is born before 1/1/49 and is re-classified as a Citizen of the UK and Colonies under the 1948 Nationality Act, only those parents reclassified under certain sections can pass the Citizenship of the UK and Colonies to be next generation for the purposes of this law. In our client’s case, her mother was re-classified as a Citizen of the UK and Colonies under section 12(3) of the British Nationality Act 1948 and therefore this section does not apply.
Given the above, it is submitted that our client meets the full criteria for Registration under Section 4C of the British Nationality Act 1981.
Kind regards,
How do you find out if YOU qualify?
1st Contact Visas have an online UK Immigration and Nationality search. Go to http://www.1stcontactvisas.com/visa-assessment.aspx , complete the search and find it if you or any of your family could qualify automatically for a British Passport. The UK Nationality rules have been supplied by Philip Gamble & Partners.
