albino

I have only been on the forum 2 days and have already found out so many useful things around citizenship. I am waiting for possible reforms in 05 before applying.

I am english born son (living in England) of an Australian father, now long time dead.

How does one begin to find out if he was still an Australian citizen at time of death, or at one point and the reasons for it being revoked? Any research avenues i can follow?

I believe he came here age five in the 20's. Im first born brit for about 5 generations. Doubtful that he would have had an Australian passport, the only English one would have probably been military -he never travelled abroad during the rest of his life.....
Kind Regards
Gaz

BKate

Hi Gaz,

Have a look at this website http://www.citizenship.gov.au/ they may also be an email address of somewhere you can contact.

Good Luck

JAJ

You've already posted that you were born between 1949 and 1974, so why on earth are you planning to wait before applying as you appear to be eligible now?

The citizenship reforms may never happen, or may be delayed. They may even disqualify you, depending on circumstances.

The bottom line is that if you're eligible now - apply now. If you're *not* eligible then you will have to wait and see what happens.

Australian citizenship did not exist at the time he moved to the UK. It was only created in 1949.

In the late 1940s all the Commonwealth countries at the time created their own local citizenships, as prior to that the Commonwealth shared a nationality code.

On 26 January 1949, he would have acquired Australian citizenship on the basis of being a British subject born in Australia.

He would only have lost his Australian citizenship if, between 26 Jan 1949 and the date of his death (or 4 April 2002 if earlier) he acquired British nationality by naturalisation or registration.

If his own father was not UK born (and he himself was not UK born or naturalised) he would not have acquired citizenship of the UK & Colonies automatically in 1949. Citizenship of the UK and Colonies was the precursor to British citizenship, and was created in 1949.

The only way to find that out would likely be to write to the Home Office and see if they can issue a letter confirming they have no record of such an acquisition of British nationality. Whether they would issue you with such a letter is unclear - I don't know to what extent UK naturalisation records are public information, or whether it would make any difference that you're his son.

Jeremy