United Kingdom - Passport & Nationality - NEW British Citizenship by Double Descent (1979 Home Secretary 4L - Pre 83)

Recent changes to British nationality to remedy gender discrimination in the past now mean that a person could be registered as a British citizen at discretion if it can be shown that a parent could be treated as a British citizen otherwise than by descent.

The key piece of information is that date when the relevant parent registered as a British citizen. This solution will show up on your Results Page if it is left blank, but it must be between 7 Feb 1979 and 31 Dec 1982.

The solution requires the following set of circumstances:

• the applicant born after 31 December 1982;
• the relevant parent was registered as a Citizen of the UK & Colonies (or CUKC, the previous form of British citizenship) after 7 February 1979 and before 1 January 1983*;
• the relevant parent was born after 7 February 1961 and before 1 January 1983 in what was considered a Foreign Country;
• the MOTHER of the relevant parent in question (i.e. the relevant Grandmother of the applicant) must have been born in the United Kingdom (which includes Northern Ireland); AND
• the FATHER of the parent in question (i.e. the relevant Grandfather of the applicant) was a British citizen by Descent based on their own father's birth in the UK.

This solution relies on the fact that Merlyn Rees, the British Home Secretary at the time, announced in Parliament on 7 February 1979 that children born to a UK-born mother could be registered at the discretion of the Home Secretary and in advance of the 1981 Nationality Act coming into force. Therefore, a consular birth registration is treated as being a Section 7 registration.

* HOWEVER: if the application for the registration was submitted BEFORE 1.1.1983 but the registration only occurred AFTER 1.1.1983 (for example, the registration certificate is dated in the first half of 1983), then it is possible to argue that the date of application should be treated as the date of registration.