Gender with Double Descent Citizenship - Does it matter anymore?

[ethanfl79]

My mom was born to a UK mother and a US father in Korea (while her father was stationed in the US military during the war). She was born in 1949, during a time when only the father would have been able to pass citizenship down if a child was born outside of the UK.

A few years later they moved back to England and my mom actually went to school in England during 3rd and 4th grade (2 years). She went to public school. Would living there have made her a citizen? Would her Mom have needed to do anything to get her "registered" as a citizen?

Also, now that the Supreme Court has ruled in 2018 that gender for parents no longer matters, is she retroactively a citizen? Or does she need to "register" somehow with the Home Office for that citizenship to take effect?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm looking into getting dual descent citizenship. I was born before 1983.

Rant: Having gender being an issue for my potential denial for the descent is outdated/antiquated and just really stupid.

[ethanfl79]

The ruling in 2018 about Mrs Romein by the Supreme Court was specifically about a mother not being able to pass by descent her citizenship to her daughter (because of the gender bloodline law only going through fathers).

Does this gender ruling also apply further down the line?

So if I was born before 1983, could I get citizenship via my Grandmother -> Mother -> Me?

Or does it still need to be a Grandfather only at the beginning of the double descent line?

[contorted_svy]

My mom was born to a UK mother and a US father in Korea (while her father was stationed in the US military during the war). She was born in 1949, during a time when only the father would have been able to pass citizenship down if a child was born outside of the UK.

A few years later they moved back to England and my mom actually went to school in England during 3rd and 4th grade (2 years). She went to public school. Would living there have made her a citizen? Would her Mom have needed to do anything to get her "registered" as a citizen?

Also, now that the Supreme Court has ruled in 2018 that gender for parents no longer matters, is she retroactively a citizen? Or does she need to "register" somehow with the Home Office for that citizenship to take effect?

The reason I'm asking is because I'm looking into getting dual descent citizenship. I was born before 1983.

Rant: Having gender being an issue for my potential denial for the descent is outdated/antiquated and just really stupid.

Was your mum a Citizen of the UK and Colonies? And were you born in the UK or a British colony? https://www.gov.uk/check-british-citize ... nuary-1983

As your mum was born in Korea, it might be that double descent doesn't apply to you. Korea is not a former British territory.

Possibly your grandmother would have needed to register your mum as a British citizen in the time that they lived here (but eligibility rules were likely different at the time!)

[secret.simon]

now that the Supreme Court has ruled in 2018 that gender for parents no longer matters, is she retroactively a citizen?

No. The UK does not do retrospective citizenship. Acquisition of British citizenship is only always prospective, never retrospective.

Nor is citizenship after birth acquired except by a paper trail. Acquisition of British citizenship at any time after birth generally requires either registration as a British citizen or naturalisation.

What the 2018 Romein judgment of the UK Supreme Court did was to allow a pathway created by Parliament (the Form UKM route) to require less documentation/remove the need for specific documentation, on the basis that mothers would have been unable to acquire such documentation under the pre-1983 laws. It did not create a new procedure ab initio, nor did it invalidate all the previous nationality laws.

If your mother was not a British citizen at the time of her birth, it is possible that she may have been registered as a Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies after arriving back in the UK. If she were so registered before 1986, the National Archives may be able to help.

She went to public school.

State school, not public school. The term "public school" means something very different in the UK than in the US. And no, going to any sort of schooling in the UK would not have led to automatic acquisition of British citizenship.

As mentioned above, either she was born with it (and she was not, based on the circumstances of her birth) or she was registered or naturalised as a British citizen.

if I was born before 1983, could I get citizenship via my Grandmother -> Mother -> Me?

You almost certainly can, by registering as a British citizen on Form UKM (also see guidance for Form UKM).

You'll need the birth certificates for your maternal grandmother, your mother and yourself, and your parents' and maternal grandparents' marriage certificates.

Keep in mind that if approved, you will only become a British citizen by descent from the date you take the Oath of Allegiance to the King (i.e. it is only prospective from the date of the citizenship ceremony, not the date of approval of application) and your family will be unable to benefit from your acquisition of British citizenship (i.e. it does not open up a pathway to British citizenship to any existing family members, including any children already born).

Only children born to you in the UK after the date of the citizenship ceremony will become British citizens by birth automatically.

If you have family that you wish to bring to the UK, you may be far better off looking into applying for an Ancestry visa (which requires the same proof, as it requires proof of having one born-in-the-UK grandparent), which has a much lower bar for family members than family members of British citizens.