British Citizen by Adoption??

Hi all,

I have a few questions and hoping to get some information. UK Border Agency website vague on this.

My mom was adopted at age 7 or so by her stepfather, a british citizen. She doesn't have a birth certificate, only an adoption or birth certificate from when adopted at 7 baring her step dads surname, would that suffice to get a british passport or whatever it is she needs to get into the uk to live?

She is from and was adopted in Zimbabwe but lives in South Africa. And this was decades ago.

Any information we would be grateful for.

Adoption outside the United Kingdom does not (except in some recent so-called "Hague Convention" cases) automatically confer British citizenship.

HOWEVER, if someone has been a Commonwealth citizen continuously since 1973, and was adopted by a British citizen before 1983, there is the chance to claim Right of Abode in the UK.

The problem is that South Africa was not a Commonwealth country until around 1994, so an important question is whether she is a South African citizen and if yes, how and when did she become South African. If she is South African she needs to be able to show that she had Rhodesia/Zimbabwe nationality at least until 1994. Zimbabwe is still treated as Commonwealth for nationality purposes.

An alternative, less preferable to Right of Abode, is the Ancestry Visa, if there is a UK-born grandparent. As far as I understand, adoptive relationships qualify.