A MOTHER-of-four hopes to finally win her fight to be recognised as a British citizen after spending 30 years living in the country.

Christine North, 37, from Clacton, has been battling with the British Government to prove she has a right to call herself a British citizen.

She was born to a German mother near an Army base in Dortmund and she has lived in the UK since the age of seven.

Her biological dad, Alan Griffiths, was a British soldier stationed near Dortmund.

He initially denied being Christine’s father, so his name and nationality are missing from Christine’s birth certificate.

Christine moved to England with her mum and stepdad – another English soldier – when she was seven.

But she has never had any official paperwork to say she is British and says no-one is willing to help her.

Without a passport, she is unable to travel abroad and said finding employment was difficult.

In her quest to get the British Government to acknowledge her UK citizenship, she tracked down her biological father.

She has copies of his passport and German court documents, which state DNA tests have been carried out proving he is her father.

After she was denied a passport in 2014, she is in the process of applying to the Home Office once again with renewed hope.

She was recently successful in applying for a job at Sainsbury’s, but her celebration was short lived when her would-be employer said her lack of proof of UK citizenship meant they would have to turn her down.

“The only reason I am applying again is the law has changed to take other factors into account,” she said.

“I have letters from my father confirming my ancestry, a copy of his passport and court documents which show DNA tests were carried out.

“I am exhausted with the whole process and angry, but still hope this time it will be approved.

“I am now 37-years-old and still I am officially from nowhere.

“This country is all I know, I can’t leave to go on holiday and now I can’t get a job.

“No-one is willing to help me.”

Despite not having official British citizenship, Christine has served on a jury twice, has a national insurance number and votes at every election.

She runs her own cake making business called Bunting and Buttercream. 

At a recent event attended by her partner, a warrant officer serving in the army, one of her cakes was cut by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

A Home Office spokesman said: “Mrs North does not have an automatic claim to British citizenship as her parents were never married.

“However, she can submit a citizenship application providing there is proof her father was British and that they were related.”