United Kingdom - Passport & Nationality - British Citizenship by Birth (Post 82 - Parent 4L by Discretion)

The UK Government entered into a treaty with the United Nations some years ago to enshrine equal rights for women, and to treat men and women equally. While the UK has passed legislation to allow such claims, the Home Office has interpreted this legislation in relation to marriage as still being from a man to a woman and not the other way round. So the stance of the UK Government therefore did not fully address gender discrimination in relation to citizenship applications.

It was only in 1983 that the issue of gender discrimination in British nationality law was addressed for the first time. However, there remained many areas in the law that were not taken into account, and several further changes have been made in the years since 1983 to remedy these. But the complexities of the old laws, and the legacy of the British colonial empire, meant that instances of unfairness still remained.

Philip Gamble, founder and our Senior Partner and widely regarded as the world's leading British nationality expert on the subject, made representations to the Parliamentary sub-committee that looked into this issue. The new legislation passed in 2022 appears to properly address the unfairness of the older law. Accordingly, it should be possible to lodge an application if one can demonstrate that - had it not been for gender discrimination in the old law - you would (or could) have British nationality in the modern day. Based on your family tree, it appears that such an application would be successful based on your birth in the UK. While the theory is complex, this solution broadly requires the following:

 1) the candidate was born in the UK after 31 December1982; AND

 2) a parent could have been a British citizen had the law been gender-equal at the time, based on a grandparent's birth in the UK.