Immigrationboards.com

Hello Fellows. Your posts are fantastic and knowledgeable so I am hoping you will brighten my day or let me down gentle.

My materal grandfather born in NZ in 1904; worked for the Crown his entire career (due to Intelligence, they can not confirm nor deny). Both his parents were born in NZ
His paternal grandfather born in Kent, England - paternal grandmother born in Ireland
His maternal grandfather born in Scotland - maternal grandmother born in Australia

He married my grandmother (US citizen) in Panama where my mother was born in 1944. Her birth was registered in 1944 with the UK Consulate under British Armed Forces Overseas Births. I was born in US in 1963.

Before 1 Jan 1949, my grandfather and mother were both British subjects by birth and descent; afterwards they were British subject: CUKCs.

I applied for citizenship using the UKM form as I believed I qualified under the Descent rule but it was declined due to Your mother became a citizen of New Zealand upon its independence as previously explained does not meet the requirements under section 12 to register as a British Citizen, as your parents or grand parents were not born in the UK.

What did I miss? Thank you for your help.

Simply put, your connections to the UK is far too remote in the past.

When looking into acquisition of British citizenship by descent from before 1983, you need to be aware of two separate concepts, both of which you need to acquire to become a British citizen; CUKC status and Right of Abode (RoA).

You have dealt at length on the British subject and CUKC status of your family members. But your mother and you would not have acquired RoA status under the rules before 1983.

RoA requires that either the applicant (you), either parent or any one grandparent was born, registered (as a British citizen) or naturalised in the UK. Birth in a Crown Colony would not count. And birth in a Commonwealth Realm (which is what New Zealand is) definitely didn't count.

From the start, RoA was gender neutral, encompassing either parent or any grandparent regardless of gender. So it would be very hard to use a "historic legislative unfairness" argument for acquiring RoA.

Only people who can prove that they would have acquired ROA (by meeting the requirements two paragraphs above) if they had CUKC status can register as British citizens on Form UKM.

To summarise, to register as a British citizen, you need to prove that
(a) You would have acquired CUKC status but for historic legislative unfairness, AND,
(b) Either you, either parent or any one grandparent was born, registered (as a British citizen) or naturalised in the UK.
Both (a) and (b) need to be met.