As if non Brits weren’t having a hard enough time getting a British Nationality, now, thanks to the rigid immigration rules of the Home office, even certain native British people are denied citizenship.
Such is the case of Christine North, who lives in Clacton, Essex. Christine moved to the UK with her German mother some 25 years ago. She is now 32. Although her mother was German, her father was a British soldier posted in Germany. However, her father refused to sign her birth documents. This is the reason why the Home Office claims she does not have the right to British Citizenship; they refused to issue her a British passport preventing her from visiting her terminally ill grandmother in Germany.
Christina’s mother met another British soldier soon after her birth and married him. They lived in Germany for a few years before moving to England. However, Mrs. North has never owned a passport because she moved to England as a child on the basis of her mother’s documents.
The only way out for Christina is to now apply for British citizenship by paying a £906 naturalization fee, which is currently unable to pay. She has been told that she can get any other documentation as a British Citizen, except a passport. After a paternity test proved him the father, Christina’s father had paid for her living expenses till she was 16. However, it is still the absence of his signatures on her birth certificate that are being taken into account. In fact, for the Home Office, she is just a German woman who was born to a German mother and an anonymous father.
The German embassy in England did not give her much hope either. According to them, she had no right to German citizenship as she has never visited or worked in Germany as an adult.
It seems as if some rules of the Home Office need to be revised to avoid such conflict and unnecessary inconvenience. There are always exceptions to rules because every case is different. Unfortunately, the only remaining solution for Christina is to apply for citizenship via naturalization; something which she does not seem to be able to afford.