Apply for British Citizenship by Descent

[rpatel99]

Hi,

I am need of clear advice regarding by status to apply for British Citizenship. I was born in Kenya as Kenyan Citizen in Sept 1985 to a Kenyan Father but my mother was British Overseas Citizen (born in Aden which was under British Rule so she was registered as british). My parents divorced shortly after i was born in Kenya and my mother resided back in UK where she naturalised to fully become a British citizenship. She has resided there for over 25 years.

My birth certificate has her name and my maternal grandparents are all british citizens and her entire family.

I hold a Kenyan passport but both Kenya & UK accept dual citizenship if i am not wrong...do correct me...

Can i apply for british citizenship based on my mother above info? I would appreciate some honest feedback

[secret.simon]

You can only inherit the status of your mother at the time of birth. Your mother was a British Overseas citizen at the time of your birth, but the law (British Nationality Act 1981) only allows BOC status to be inherited from a parent if you had no other nationality (See Section 4). In your case, you had Kenyan nationality from your father and hence you do not have BOC status.

Your mother's subsequent acquisition of British citizenship does not give you any access to British citizenship or any other access to immigration.

[rpatel99]

thanks for the quick response

is there any other condition that may help my situation?

[secret.simon]

Not to the best of my knowledge. You will have to apply for UK immigration in the usual way, for a path through the Points based system, as the spouse of a British citizen or of an EEA citizen. You gain no advantage due to your mother's current British citizenship.

[CR001]

Are your grandparents UK born?

[secret.simon]

Are your grandparents UK born?

If the (maternal) grandparents were UK-born, the mother would have been a British citizen by descent and not BOC. Therefore, it is improbable (though not impossible) that the maternal grandparents were UK-born and my advice is predicated on that calculation.

[rpatel99]

they were not born in UK but they are fully british citizens before my time