Mother's staus Jan 1949... grasping at straws

[abercroft]

I am going back through the nationality laws of the UK to see if I have any possibility of being regestering as a British Citizen.

I would like to know if there was a possibility if my mother was BOTH a Canadian Citizen and a Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKC). She would have been a CUKC before Jan 1949, how do I know if she lost that? It says in the literature I can find that SOME people had both, but I cannot find out the criteria by which that judgement was made.

My mother was born in Canada in 1927 of British born citizens.
I was born in the States in 1960.

I am trying to make the case that if my mother WAS a CUKC when I was born, I have a right to register as a UK Citizen when the UK law changes in the near future.

Thanks

[JAJ]

Your mother was a CUKC when you were born, as long as she did not become an American citizen before 1949. That is not in doubt.

However, at the time (and still now), people who were CUKC by descent could not normally pass on that status a generation further.

Women, under the 1948 Act, could not pass on their CUKC status anyway. As a result, the 1948 Act framers "forgot" to make women born before 1949 into CUKCs by descent. That probably won't help you much ... because section 4C of the British Nationality Act says you can only register now as a British citizen if you would have been a CUKC at the time if women could pass on CUKC in the same way as men could. Had your father been in the same situation, you would not have acquired CUKC when you were born.

I doubt the new law will change that principle, although you may want to check.

BUT - you are a Canadian citizen by descent, so if you get a Canadian passport you can apply for an Ancestry Visa. Or, if one of your grandparents was born in Ireland or Northern Ireland, you can register as an Irish citizen.

[abercroft]

MY point is that my mother was a CUKC not by decent, but by birth.
Because she was born in a time when there was no British citizenship, only British Subject-hood. She was born a British subject in 1927.

Then in 1949, all those who were British subjects and born in certain countries (Canada included) became CUKC. In my mother's case, because she got her British subject-hood by birth, I say her CUKC was by birth too. She also became a Commonwealth Citizen as the two terms are deemed the same by law.

So in 1960 I was born to a CUKC who got that status by BIRTH, not descent. So I would be the CUKC by descent.
The way I am seeing it, I could get a UK passport, but not my son. HE falls under the 'by descent' category.

My mother traveled on her Canadian passport, and never became American because of her expressed loyalty to Canada and the UK.

I have been around and around on this for a while. Everyone tells me I have no hope, but they can't tell my when and why her and thusly my status was revoked. Can anyone here make it clear to me, and steer me to the relevant legislation?

I am already in the UK on an Ancestry visa. And none of my family is Irish. Scotland forever! What burns me is the fact that my grandmother left the UK pregnant with my mother! Even my Aunt was born in the UK. I wish my grandmother could have waited just a FEW months.
Thanks.

[JAJ]

MY point is that my mother was a CUKC not by decent, but by birth.
Because she was born in a time when there was no British citizenship, only British Subject-hood. She was born a British subject in 1927.

Doesn't matter. I suggest you read the 1948 Act ...

[abercroft]

OK, So it looks like it was the 1948 act that changed my mother's status from being a British subject by birth, to one of descent.
And this is because she was born in Canada, and not in the UK or colonies. Canada not being a colony anymore.

Sound right?
thanks for your help.