Please Advise - British Citizenship possible?

[sohail akhter]

A british person died in 1975. The person died in Pakistan. He had two wives in Paksitan. One of his wives gave birth to a son after one month of his death. Is there any chance of UK citizenship for him??????????? I knew there are DNA Tests these days, acceptable to the UK embassy

[John]

Before we delve further into this, given that the UK Government does not recognise polygamy, the son born one month after the British Citizen's death, born to the first wife or the second wife?

[sohail akhter]

Thanks Johan
The son was born from the second wife.

regards!

[bash_h]

How did that british person get their citizenship? Through Descent or other means (Birth, Naturalisation)?

[John]

The son was born from the second wife.

I am open to correction if anyone else has any other thoughts but my conclusion is :-

Because the UK recognises only one marriage (at a time) it would not recognise the "second wife" as a wife at all. Accordingly the UK would treat the child as being born outside of marriage. It is then necessary to look at whether the father was domiciled in the UK at the time of his death. But he died in Pakistan and at the very least the UK authorities would need some convincing that he was domiciled in the UK at the time of his death, and merely visiting Pakistan when he died.

Of course this was 30 years ago so I am going to say ... probably impossible to prove now. And the point alluded to by Bash_h is good also .... on what basis does the father have British Citizenship?

[penanglad]

It is very complicated -

Polygamous marriages are valid under English law if at the time they were contracted both parties were domiciled in countries that allowed polygamy.

The legitimacy of the child depends on the law of the country of birth, e.g. New Zealand has abolished the concept of illegitimacy, so a child born there to a British father and non-British mother domiciled in New Zealand at the time of birth will be a British citizen even if his parents are not married.

[ImmigrationGirl]

For immigration purposes, polygamous marriages are not recognised, therefore the child would probably be deemed illegitimate. Although illegitimate children are now able to take on the nationality of their father, this is not retrospective, so if the child did not register at the time it is unlikely that he will be able to register all these years later. Also, if the father only had British Citizenship by descent, he cannot automatically pass his nationality on to his child born outside of the UK.

IG

[penanglad]

The question is not whether the marriage is considered valid for UK immigration law purposes, but whether the child is considered legitimate or illegitimate under UK family/private international law. This will depend on the law of the country where the child was born and the law of the countries where the parents were domiciled. If the child was born, and the parents were domiciled, in Pakistan, then the child will be legitimate and therefore the child of the father for the purposes of the BNA1981. If either party was domiciled in England and Wales or another country that forbids polygamy, then the marriage would be void and the child illegitimate. See the Nationality Instructions on the IND website under "Legitimacy".