Simpson8 wrote:Hi, I'm new to this forum and hoping someone can help me.
Is registering the birth of a British citizen the same as being registered as a British citizen?
No.
My mother was born outside the UK to British parents, her birth was registered at the local consulate and when they returned to Scotland, she was registered at Somerset House (the new Register House) in Edinburgh. Would this have changed her to british "otherwise than by descent"?
No.
Prior to 1983, a man who was a Citizen of the UK & Colonies by descent could not normally pass on that status to a child born outside the U.K. & Colonies (protectorates etc were not colonies).
However, there was an exception for birth in protectorates and similar territories.
As far as I can tell from searching, Egypt was a protectorate at one point in its history - between 1914 and 1922 - so unfortunately your mother was born too late for this. It's not in the Home Office lists:
http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/siteco ... iew=Binary
http://www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk/siteco ... iew=Binary
Unfortunately, you don't qualify for Right of Abode either because your mother was not born in the U.K.
You do appear to qualify for an Ancestry Visa.
There is an interesting quirk in the law ...
... As to whether your mother was CUKC by descent or not. She would only have become CUKC on 1 January 1949 (prior to that, British subject status was the norm). As a person born prior to 1949, she would have got her CUKC status under section 12(2) of the British Nationality Act 1948. Interestingly, section 12(8) of the Act states that only a male person getting CUKC this way could be a citizen by descent.
Hence your mother was not a CUKC by descent. However, you will struggle for this to benefit you because the wording of part of section 4C (the UKM provision) talks about whether you would have been entitled to CUKC at the time
if women had been treated the same as men in terms of ability to pass on citizenship (or words to that effect). I suspect that the Home Office will not be generous in allowing the fact that your mother was technically CUKC otherwise than by descent (purely due to her gender) to give you an eligibility for UKM. You could of course choose to go to court but you might struggle there too as the courts would probably look at the intention of the UKM provision.
From 1983 your mother became a British citizen by descent, so no ambiguity from then on.
If she's not become an Australian citizen, she ought to consider taking that step now.
