nmruk

Hi everyone,

This is my first post. I have enquiries regarding my eligibility to apply for certificate of entitlement.

I am a Malaysian citizen, born in 1981, to a Malaysian father (deceased), born in Penang in 1952. My parents were married during my birth. Currently I have been in the UK for 3 year with using Tier 4 Student Visa with my Malaysian passport.

Extensive reading in online articles has deduced me to believe my father is British Overseas Citizen, and I believed I am entitled to right of abode to enter UK. I intend to apply for certificate of entitlement in my Malaysian passport to enable me to stay while I finish my studies after my student visa expires in 2019.

I hope you can further advice me on my current understanding as to help me with my situation, whether I am entitled to apply the certification of entitlement to right of abode.

Your time and effort in this is great appreciated.

Thank you.

HKG3

Q1 - Were you born in the UK?

Q2 - Were your mother born in the UK?

There is a possibility that you are a British Overseas Citizen at the time of your birth. However, as you have Malaysian citizenship, you cannot get British Citizenship under section 4B of the British Nationality Act 1981.

SanDiegogirl

Why do you think your father was a BOC - what evidence do you have of this?

nmruk

Q1 - No, I was born in Malaysia.

Q2 - No, she was born in Malaysia as well.

I am not looking for applying BC, but to apply certificate of entitlement to right of abode to remain in the UK after my Tier 4 expires. This is due to cheaper fees and no maintenance required.

nmruk

My (deceased) father was born in Penang, which was a British Crown colony from 1946 to 1957, and listed as one of CUCK. I have his birth certificate with me.

BTW thank you for all replies so far

SanDiegogirl

Lots of people lived in Penang between 1946 and 1957, but were not BOC's

Did he ever have a British/BOC passport?

nmruk

No, he never had British passport.

HKG3

On what grounds do you think that you are entitle to a Certificate of Entitlement? Would be delighted if the OP can enlighten me on this matter.

nmruk

Hi,

I think I entitled to Certificate of Entitlement to Right of Abode as believe that I became a British citizen on 1 January 1983 under British Nationality Act 1981 s.11(1).

BritInParis

British Overseas Citizens and British citizens are not the same thing. BOCs do not have Right of Abode in the UK; British citizens do. Even if we accept the premise that your father was a BOC at the time of your birth then being born in Malaysia to a BOC father would not have made you a British citizen on 01/01/1983.

nmruk

Thanks for your feedback BritInParis.

While in the first post I believe that my dad is a BOC and confused with CUCK.. I stumbled upon a flowchart to establish whether I have a claim for right of abode, and found that I can by claiming as a British citizen by descent under S.11(1) BNA 1981 on 1 January 1983.

A reply to my email to HO had advised that if I apply CE now, my dependant's will not able to reside in UK using their current Tier 4 dependant visas..

Now, since I am not able to apply CE until the end of the visa expiry.. just afraid of whether the act will change in this two years, and contemplating to send of the NS form but this will add more to the overall cost of it..

p/s: I know asking for a British passport is cheaper, but I really don't want another passport as a travelling document.

BritInParis

I'm still at loss as to why you think you became a British citizen on 01/01/1983. Only CUKCs with Right of Abode in the UK became British citizens. Those without Right of Abode became either BOCs or BDTCs.

nmruk

Yeah, I did those flowcharts to establish whether I had right of abode and also this the free nationality test that says I can claim as British citizen.

HKG3

If the OP thinks he/she qualifies for a Certificate of Entitlement, then he/she should put in an application and keep all of us in this forum informed of his/her progress.

The link below is from the UK government website with information on Certificate of Entitlement. The OP can have a quick read before applying -

https://www.gov.uk/right-of-abode

nmruk

Thank you HKG3 for the reply. I have read the link before posting to the forum. I have also used the 'Check if you're a British citizen' page too. But recently I used the free nationality check from the Sable Intl and the flowchart from the UKBA to come to this overall conclusion.

Following my post, I wrote to the HO to ask, as I am a Tier 4 (Sponsored Student) in the UK, with dependants as well, what happens to my dependants if I requests CE now, and they have replied that my dependants will not be able to continue to reside using their current visa if after my CE is granted.

I have a good 1 and a half years to go on my visa, so now my worry is there will be a change in the Act that will reduce my chance to apply CE prior to my visa ending.

As for now, I have decided to fill in the NS form to go ahead before requesting the CE, and somehow add up the overall cost rather than requesting the CE.

I hope it clears up my current game plan. I am posting all here as I am trying to do it by the book and just in case if there are any thing I miss that are needed to know, appreciate if you can give a heads up. Of course, I will update once I have something..