Inheritance Issues - British Citizen,Mother lives in Mauritius

Manick62 wrote:

Greetings from Mauritius!
h Citizen. I tried to apply for a Mauritian National Identity Card, without success, as I am in my 50s and it seems that I cannot have dual nationality.

I am not sure why, as both countries allow dual citizenship. Who told you that you could not get it?

But your question is quite specialised, I am not sure anyone here would be able to answer you with a firm answer. Unless someone comes up with an answer, I would suggest you speak with an international lawyer.

Hi,

At one point in time, Mauritius did not allow dual citizenship, so it may be possible that you lost your Mauritian citizenship upon becoming a British citizen, hence the reason why you cannot get a Mauritian ID.

Therefore, you will have to get your Mauritian citizenship back. It's a whole different process whereby you will have to come to Mauritius to start the application at the Prime Minister's Office. You will need some documents like your British ID, your birth certificate. your mother's birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc.

There is something not quite right in this story.  Where you are born has very little relevance in deciding your nationality.  Citizenship is derived from your parents; in legal terms, it's called "Jus sanguinis" and Mauritius (like the rest of the world) uses this system.  What it means is that you inherit the nationality of your birth parents.; it follows that if you have parents of different nationalities that, at birth, you become a dual-national, regardless of what either nation thinks about the matter.

My advice is similar to WinstonH; assuming your mother and/or father have Mauritian nationality, go ask for a Mauritian passport.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Cynic wrote:

There is something not quite right in this story.  Where you are born has very little relevance in deciding your nationality.  Citizenship is derived from your parents; in legal terms, it's called "Jus sanguinis" and Mauritius (like the rest of the world) uses this system.  What it means is that you inherit the nationality of your birth parents.; it follows that if you have parents of different nationalities that, at birth, you become a dual-national, regardless of what either nation thinks about the matter.

My advice is similar to WinstonH; assuming your mother and/or father have Mauritian nationality, go ask for a Mauritian passport.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

The OP will need an ID to apply for a passport. And to get his ID, he will have to go through the 'resumption of nationality' process first.

WinstonH wrote:

Cynic wrote:

There is something not quite right in this story.  Where you are born has very little relevance in deciding your nationality.  Citizenship is derived from your parents; in legal terms, it's called "Jus sanguinis" and Mauritius (like the rest of the world) uses this system.  What it means is that you inherit the nationality of your birth parents.; it follows that if you have parents of different nationalities that, at birth, you become a dual-national, regardless of what either nation thinks about the matter.

My advice is similar to WinstonH; assuming your mother and/or father have Mauritian nationality, go ask for a Mauritian passport.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

The OP will need an ID to apply for a passport. And to get his ID, he will have to go through the 'resumption of nationality' process first.

Do you have Birth Certificates ?

Manick62 wrote:

Greetings from Mauritius!

I am on holiday in Mauritius visiting my widowed mother. I was born in Mauritius, but left the country when I was 3 years old. I am a naturalised British Citizen. I tried to apply for a Mauritian National Identity Card, without success, as I am in my 50s and it seems that I cannot have dual nationality.

You can re-apply for it - see the government site being mentioned on this forum wrt citizenship

My mother is concerned that, should she pass away, complications could arise with leaving inheritance of her savings, cash in bank and assets to her three children, we all live abroad without Mauritian nationality. What should she do to avoid complications for the unexpected? She's rather stressed about this and of course, she wants to ease her mind that all her assets, cash in bank and savings go directly to her three children.
1. Hope that she has drawn a will - good for her state of mind as well as yours .
2. This may be helpful  but check with a notary if you are on the island:

A reserved portion applies in Mauritian law.Mauritius is a forced heirship jurisdiction, and reserves a portion of the estate for the children of the deceased. This jurisdiction applies equally to Mauritian citizens and foreigners (provided they are entitled to inherit in Mauritius).Pursuant to the Mauritian Civil Code, no testamentary provision may encroach upon the "reserved portion", which consists of:One half of the estate - if the deceased leaves one childTwo thirds of the estate - if the deceased leaves two childrenThree quarters of the estate - if the deceased leaves three or more childrenThe reserved portion is divided equally amongst the surviving children and the descendants of any pre-deceased children (i.e. children who die before their parent). The descendants of a pre-deceased child are jointly entitled to the pre-deceased child's share of the reserved portionThe unreserved or "available portion" of the estate may be freely willed to any other person, including an heir under forced heirship provisions, or any entity, charitable or religious body, whether Mauritian or foreign. The beneficiary under such a will must not be subject to any legal incapacity.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

SimCityAT wrote:

Do you have Birth Certificates ?

He will still need to get a copy for his application to resume his Mauritian citizenship and can be obtained at :
http://csd.pmo.govmu.org/English/Pages/Services.aspx

External wrote:

SimCityAT wrote:

Do you have Birth Certificates ?

He will still need to get a copy for his application to resume his Mauritian citizenship and can be obtained at :
http://csd.pmo.govmu.org/English/Pages/Services.aspx

I was responding to WinstonH's comment.

Hello,

The easiest thing to do is to ask your mother to make a will nominating her children after her death (sorry we don't want to write this)  name and address  in the UK as her heirs.  By doing so you will all be able to transfer the money to the UK without problem - however make sure you have a good notary.

Regarding your Mauritius id - you can have it but do you really need it - don't waste time as it is a long procedure with lot of incompetent people (sorry for the competent)...

If only you know what we went through when my dad passed away.  The civil status officer wrote the name of my grandma as my father's wife.  My dad mother's passed away some 60 years ago.

The stress we have had to undergo this change, my mother was not recognized anywhere as the widow on the death certificate.

We went there the next day after the cremation and the office told us it will take one year to have the name changed.

I wrote to the Prime ministers office -the attorney general, week end newspaper, I reported the case to the police station (met a competent corporal) and after a battle of 6 months - we finally got the death certificate with my mother as a widow.

A few months after I went to the same civil status office and ask for a birth certificate for my mam, they made again some mistake with the date.

I was not very polite with them.

So think twice before undergoing long procedures about your id.

Hi there Manick,
I don't know whether this answers your question, but it might enlighten you and other readers on possibly why it seems difficult in your case to obtain dual nationality. I believe Winston H. is absolutely right in advising you that dual nationality might be a complicated issue if it relates to a certain point in time. But Cynic is right too, if it concerns a later point in time. Why? Here goes:

If you are in your 50's and left Mauritius when you were 3, then possibly you left Mauritius BEFORE independence (12th March, 1968).  Who decided to become a Mauritian citizen, and who decided to stay a British subject was decided by who stayed in Mauritius on the 12th of March and who did not. Everyone who did not want to be a Mauritian citizen left the country before Mauritius became independent. This is the logic behind the nationality law in Mauritius in the very complicated situation of defining who is a citizen of a newly-founded State. The way that it was resolved is that If you were not in Mauritius as from the 12th March 1968 onwards, the newly founded Mauritian State assumes that you decided, or your parent/s or responsible party decided for you that you would remain a British subject.

Those who stayed on in Mauritius could at some point after 1968, obtain dual nationality, and much later on in time, the very rich who are not Mauritian could too.

If you left Mauritius before 12.3.68, you might still be able to obtain Mauritian nationality but that would mean that you would have to legally decline the nationality that you have now, though from your message, it does not seem as if you would want to do that or maybe I am mistaken (?) If you are naturalised British, then I don't know the legal implications in Britain (from what I am reading in international newspapers, nationality of ex-colonised citizens is an issue too in Britain).

But maybe the nationality issue isn't the main issue for you: inheritance law here does state that all movable or immovable property goes to the spouse (if there is one) and children in equal shares. And if you have a birth certificate proving that your parent/s are Mauritian citizens (and as Candycandy has warned you, make sure all the dates and names are correct if you have one) then you would be entitled to inheritance.

Then again, I am not sure what would happen if there is immovable property involved - you cannot own property in Mauritius if you are not a Mauritian citizen unless you have a lot of money in a PDS property scheme.

I suggest you contact a notary versed in Mauritian in citizenship (Mauritian Constitution), inheritance and property law (Mauritian Civil Code).

Best of luck in finding a resolution - I'm sure there must be one. It does help if you understand the why's even if I don't think I've helped you much with the how's. At least you now have a better legal angle to approach the issue.

P.S. - On another note, I have also had issues with wrong entries on my birth certificate and I found that writing to the Ombudsman, Bank of Baroda building, Port Louis was very helpful as well as costing only the postage! The Ombudsman opens an inquiry within 1-2 weeks of receiving a written complaint about maladministration in the pubic sector here, and my issue got resolved.

Just mentioning in case it gets handy at some point....

Cheers,

Malika

Hi,

I would recommend you to consult a competent notary who knows international private law.

I had good experience with Mr. A*** from*** at Caudan.
Good lawyer with an Office in London is also
***

Your Mother can also give part of your heritance now and keep enough for her to live and also make a will to secure transparency of all assets. Everything should be mentioned in the will.

This is what I did as my Kids are also abroad and I live in Mauritius.

All the best

Devianee