A woman who was born and raised in the UK and has never left the country before has been deemed as stateless after her application for a passport was rejected.
Angela Jones, 23, from Herne Hill, south London, applied for a passport for the first time along with her younger brother.
But while he had his application approved and passport delivered within two weeks, Angela's application was rejected.
The aspiring actor was told that because her mum was not a British citizen or was classed as settled in the UK when she was born, therefore she is not eligible for a British passport despite her brother being fine. Angela added that this was due to "discretion of the examiner".
She told MyLondon: "I applied for a passport around the same time as my younger brother. He's one year younger than me, he's 22, I'm 23. We sent off the exact same documents - our birth certificate, our mother's death certificate and a covering letter.
"He managed to get his passport within two weeks. And mine was rejected... they said that I don't meet the qualifications for citizenship."
Angela added: "And I had asked them why it was that my brother was able to get a passport without any questions and I wasn't and they didn't have a clear answer.
"They admitted themselves that it didn't make sense, but that they couldn't backtrack and therefore couldn't give me a passport."
She continued: "They said it was up to the discretion of the examiner that I had. So one person decided that I wasn't British enough to leave the country essentially even though I've never left the country.
"I have lived worked and paid taxes here my whole life. But, unfortunately, I can't leave, which is now getting in the way of my working opportunities as an actor."
Angela aspires to be an actor after finishing drama school last year, but now cannot accept any jobs where filming is recorded in other countries.
This is also the first time that Angela is applying for a passport. She said that in her youth the family didn't have the money to take them on holidays so there was never an incentive to get a passport.
But now, being older and having her own financial freedom, going abroad has become accessible to her - and a necessity for her work.
Angela said she finds the whole thing 'comically absurd' as she is a British citizen. She said: "I have a right to work here, right to live her, national insurance, even the right to buy a house here, but it doesn't make sense that they've now they've told me that I'm stateless.
"And they sent me a form to apply for citizenship and the irony is on that form, the first thing that I was asked for was a passport. So I can't even apply for one that in the way that they suggested."
The Home Office told the Mirror that even though Angela was born in the UK, because she was born after the passing of the British Nationality Act she isn't automatically a citizen as they had no evidence that her mum was a citizen at the time either.
They admitted it wasn't clear why her brother got a passport and she didn't, despite them sharing both parents.
