Any advice on this would be welcome! I’m applying for citizenship through Form UKM (that is ‘born before 1983 to a British mother’).
My mother was born in Hong Kong and received her ‘Certificate of Registration as a Citizen of the UK and Colonies under Section 6(2) of the BNA 1948’ in 1966 before my birth.
According to Form UKM (Jan 2010 version), it states:
You will be entitled to registration if:
1. you were born before 1 January 1983; and
2. you were born to a mother who was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time of your birth and you would have been a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies by descent if it had been possible for women to pass on citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies to their children in the same way as men could; and...
My mother is clearly a ‘citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies’ as stated in her 1966 certificate. However because of the subsequent new classes of citizenship created in the decades following, will this have an effect on her status? I say this as the term ‘citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies’ is no longer in use it seems.
Nonetheless, because the Jan 2010 form still uses the wording ‘born to a mother who was a citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the time of your birth’, I am assuming that her status as such is still legally upheld (despite subsequent new citizenship classifications). That said, I would still be eligible to apply for a British passport for myself with ride of abode in the UK.
Despite my connection to Hong Kong, I’m not interested in the ‘British National Overseas’ type passport, which apparently does not allow me right of abode in the UK itself.
By the way, I was born in Hong Kong myself before the stipulated 1983. As for my father, he holds the category of ‘British Citizen’ in his current passport having lived and worked in England for more than 5 years.
Hope this all makes sense. Any help would be very much appreciated with thanks!
HH
