This question isn't for my citizenship application, but for one of my relatives' application for a British passport. I hope that is okay for me to do so. Please accept my apologies if this is not allowed here.
Basically, my relative was born in the UK before 1983 (1968 to be precise) and only recently found out that by birth, at the time she was born, she was automatically British - her parents did not know that this was a possibility, and chose to apply for an Indian passport. Currently, she is still an Indian citizen with an Indian passport. She is now in the process of applying for her British passport, but there are a few issues that are keeping her from proceeding.
1) She has her UK birth certificate, so there is no problem here.
2) She is required to submit the passport of both her parents that covered the time of her birth. She only has her mom's passport, but couldn't find her dad's passport. She does have a work certificate from her dad's employer that states that he was here during the period surrounding her birth. Is that sufficient?
3) She doesn't have either of her parents' birth certificates. She is trying to see if they can get them reissued with the local government offices in India. However, she has the school certificates of both parents showing their dates of birth - she is not sure if this is a suitable alternative.
4) One of the major sticking points is the question: why has she waited just over 50 years to apply for her British passport? Can it simply be that she was not aware that she was unaware that she was British by birth? Any advice here will be really appreciated.
5) She is not sure how to answer the following question(s): does she plan to live (and work) in the UK? She is settled in India, and is working as an English (as a second language) teacher. If she says that she is not planning to come to the UK, will it be an issue for the passport application?
I would like to thank you all in advance for any advice you can give us
