The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #64087   Message #1048333
Posted By: Willie-O
05-Nov-03 - 07:37 AM
Thread Name: BS: Indians in England
Subject: RE: BS: Indians in England
I looked up the info via the links Noreen helpfully provided. FWIW. It is sure fascinating the categories of British semi-citizenry, and they change them when they feel like it.

When I got my "certificate of entitlement of abode" in 1983, I could have received it if I was a Commonwealth citizen with just one grandparent born in the UK (long as I could prove it). Nowadays, a grandparent doesn't rate. But it seems I hit the jackpot by getting my papers long ago, since the High Commission website states "that you are entirely free from United Kingdom immigration control; you do not need to obtain the permission of an Immigration Officer to enter the UK, and you may live and work there without restriction." All this without any kind of British citizenship, the certificate is in my Canadian passport.

Nowadays, if you had a grandparent from the UK, you can get a kind of second-class entitlement of abode, if they feel like giving it to you--it only lasts for four years, which seems pretty odd....long enough to get a bachelor's degree and you can work in a chip shop on weekends, then back you go! UK Ancestry

I guess all immigration systems have pages of definitions like this, eh! My head just goes spinny about halfway down. And it appears that if I do move to Britain, only one of my wives can join me there...

Willie-O