Thank you. That was my thought, I just kept going round in circles. Immigration did say he could apply for citizenship, but I thought he would need an ILR first? Or equivalent. Mind you he does have NI and NHS numbers

The fathers status is not on birth cer, has had no involvement and is now deceased. Doesn't help I know.

Yet the border agency over the phone admitted that his passport should have been stamped on arrival in 2001. My daughter received hers on entry at the airport.

I have had ILR since 1984, had my son in America, moved back to England in 2001 when he was 3 months old. Handed over passports on arrival to border agency. His passport was never stamped with ILR on arrival, I still have ILR. (I was 21 at the time, just got off the red eye with a 3 month old ...