Child of a Rhodesian/UK Citizen Mother Querying UK Passport

I am a South African citizen born in 1976. My mother was born (around 1948) in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) where her father (born in the UK around 1918 and holding British citizenship) was stationed with the South African British Police.

The family moved to South Africa after my mother's birth where she obtained a South African passport. As an adult she later applied for and was granted a British passport in the mid 1980's. My grandparents and my mother are now deceased and I am left trying to figure out all the details of possible entitlement to British citizenship for myself.

I do not know whether my mother obtained her British passport through descent (via her father) or by being born in Zimbabwe when it was still a colony (her British passport does not indicate this information).

I know I am eligible for a UK Ancestry Visa through my grandfather, but I was wondering whether I was more directly able to apply for citizenship (or at least ILR) because my mother held a British passport?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You can likely ask for your mother's file from the UK passport office if she is no longer living.

Or ask the issuing office of the passport for this information.

StewbobClark wrote:I am a South African citizen born in 1976. My mother was born (around 1948) in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) where her father (born in the UK around 1918 and holding British citizenship) was stationed with the South African British Police.

The family moved to South Africa after my mother's birth where she obtained a South African passport. As an adult she later applied for and was granted a British passport in the mid 1980's. My grandparents and my mother are now deceased and I am left trying to figure out all the details of possible entitlement to British citizenship for myself.

I do not know whether my mother obtained her British passport through descent (via her father) or by being born in Zimbabwe when it was still a colony (her British passport does not indicate this information).

I know I am eligible for a UK Ancestry Visa through my grandfather, but I was wondering whether I was more directly able to apply for citizenship (or at least ILR) because my mother held a British passport?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

When you were born, in 1976, British mothers could not pass on their citizenship.

You are ineligible for registration now as a British citizen because even if it had been your father who was British, he would have been British "by descent".

Bear in mind that although Southern Rhodesia was technically a "colony" up to 1980, from 1949 it was treated as an independent Commonwealth country for nationality purposes.

So Southern Rhodesia had its own citizenship law, from 1950, and was not considered part of the "UK and Colonies" for nationality purposes.

Somewhat similar query here:
http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=23061

Thanks for your replies.

To Directive/2004/38/EC, thank you for your suggestions. I have contacted the British Consulate in Cape Town where my mother's British passport was issued and have requested a copy of her file. I am awaiting a reply and will post the results of that communique.

To JAJ, thanks for your help.
[When you were born, in 1976, British mothers could not pass on their citizenship.]

This is the general rule, although there is an exception. http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/britis ... ishmother/ provides details of how a person born before 1983 to a British mother can register as a British citizen, using application form UKM. The fact that I was born before 1983 to a British mother is not the reason that I may not be entitled to register as a British citizen, but rather the fact that my mother was British by descent. If she had been born in the UK and everything else were the same, I would be entitled to register as a British citizen because this rule can be activated retroactively.[/quote]

stewbob, JAJ's first two lines should be taken together. He was referring to:

"have been 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 this citizenship on to their children in the same way as men"

Hence, JAJ's remaining lines explained how had your mother been a father, he wouldn't have been able to pass on citizenship to you because of the situation of Southern Rhodesia.