Boxofnothin

G'day folks!

I've got a query for ya. Can I apply for a British passport?

A little background...

My Dad was born in 1945 in Calcutta, Bengal India (while the White Raj ruled the place). My paternal grandfather was working as a machinist for a munitions factory there during the war. My grandparents were married and had two older daughters, both born in the UK, but my father was conceived and born in Calcutta.

1946 rolls round and the war is over, my Dad's family packs up and heads back to Liverpool. 1952, King George dies, and the family heads Down Under (10 pound Poms).

My grandparents never became Aussie citizens. My Dad got his Aussie citizenship in 1980 but retained his British citizenship (or so I think because he held a British passport until the late eighties when he got lazy and never got a new one).

My cousins all have British passports, well not all, but the ones who applied did. However, my Dad wasn't born in the UK...Hence the query.

India became in independent country from England about 1947ish and it seriously messed up citizenships and this affected the British Nationality act.

My grandparents are dead and my father passed away recently, I've no one left to ask.

BritInParis

You are certainly eligible for a UK Ancestry visa if you wish to live and work in the UK. As for British citizenship, it's a possibility. What were the circumstances surrounding your paternal grandfather's recruitment to work in India? Was he drafted or did the family move there independently?

Boxofnothin

My grandfather was a fitter/turner for a Shadow Factory run by Rootes Sec. in Stoke-On-Trent. He was transferred to India to work as a foreman in a munitions factory there (no idea about the specifics). He was not in any form of military position until he was recruited in 1947.

BritInParis

The chances are probably not then. If your grandfather was in Crown service at the time of your father's birth in India in 1945 then your father would have been able to pass on his British citizenship to you. I presume your mother was Australian-born?

Boxofnothin

In truth I am very confused about my father's nationality. Particularly from 1945 to 1980 with regards to the 1948 British Nationality Act and the 1981 Act.

If he was a British subject could he have gained citizenship on his own merit because of the dissolution of British rule in India?

What was he when he was born? a British subject because he was born in a UK territory? A British citizen because of his father?

Boxofnothin

I think my main issue is "How my father was British."

Which is the basis of my confusion. So he was British because...?

. He was a British subject born in a British Colony. When that colony became independent he was what?

. Was he automatically a British citizen from birth because he was the legal child of a British citizen (should he have been registered as one?). If so he was only British by descent (what rights did he have to abode in the UK given there was no CUKC status until the 1949.)

If he were considered a British subject, would he not have gained status as a British citizen after the 1949 act, given that he was born in India and had no claim to Indian citizenship?

I understand that Part 2 Section 12 is relevent to this but I am a veterinary student and this make no sense to me.

BritInParis

He was a British subject by birth under the British Nationality Act 1914 by virtue of his birth in India which was a Dominion within the British Empire in 1945. With the passing of the British Nationality Act 1948 he became a Citizen of the United Kingdom by descent by virtue of his father's birth in the United Kingdom. Likewise he would have gained Right of Abode in the United Kingdom with the Immigration Act 1971. He therefore became a British citizen by descent on 1 January 1983 with the commencement of the British Nationality Act 1981.

Boxofnothin

Thanks! Most helpful