Help with 4C application

Hi there

My grandfather was born in wales. In 1959 he married my Maltese grandmother in Brixton. They had 4 kids, one of them my mother who was born in Malta in 1966. She then had me in 1986. Both me and my mother have Maltese ID's, and I also have a Maltese passport. I also got my grandfather's British last name.

However I'd like to see if im eligible to apply for a British passport through decent, or double decent actually. Found out about the 4C unfairness law.

I need any help to see my chances are good to gain a British passport, also my mother. I already obtained our birth certificates in full from the identity offices in Malta, but not sure if I need them apostilled from Malta to send over to the UK? If someone has info, or experience or this and like to share with me, would be very helpful.

Also any other info, links, what the process is, please if you can I'd like them too.

I also have my grandparents marriage certificate as well.

Thanks.

Why isn't your mother a British citizen/why do you not think she already is? She should be, as she was born to a British father. If your mother applies for a British passport with a birth certificate showing grandfather's name and your grandfather's passport or other proof of his British citizenship, she should be able to get a passport. This would mean you are already British by descent and eligible to apply for a passport with the same documents I listed above plus your birth certificate and your mother's British passport.

contorted_svy wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 09, 2026 1:22 pm

Why isn't your mother a British citizen/why do you not think she already is? She should be, as she was born to a British father. If your mother applies for a British passport with a birth certificate showing grandfather's name and your grandfather's passport or other proof of his British citizenship, she should be able to get a passport. This would mean you are already British by descent and eligible to apply for a passport with the same documents I listed above plus your birth certificate and your mother's British passport.

OPs mother is British by descent, born abroad to a British father.

OP is not.

Morrisey86 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 09, 2026 9:50 am

my mother who was born in Malta in 1966. She then had me in 1986.

Where were you born?

Your mother is already a British citizen by descent and can apply directly for a British passport with her parents' (your grandparents') marriage certificate and her (your mother's) birth certificate.

If you were born in the UK to your mother, you would also automatically have been a British citizen otherwise than by descent.

The double descent approach would likely not apply to you. That applies to people born before 1983. Before 1983, only British fathers could pass on British citizenship to their children born outside the UK. After 1983, British mothers could pass on British citizenship on the same terms as British fathers; that is to say, only one generation outside the UK. Therefore, regardless of whether it was your father or mother who was a British citizen, there was no discrimination after 1983. Hence Section 4C of the British Nationality Act 1981 applies only to people - born outside the UK - to British citizen mothers - before 1983.

The only approach I can see for you is to apply for an Ancestry visa, move to the UK, live here for five years and then naturalise as a British citizen in your own right. The requirements for an Ancestry visa are minimal, apart from having at least one grandparent born in the UK, which you meet.

You haven't mentioned if you have any spouse or children. Do you?