UK resident of 47 years is illegal, says Home Office Published duration 13 October 2015

media caption Winnie Birkenhead, from Burnley in Lancashire, came to the UK from Malaysia in 1967 on her mother's passport

A woman who has lived in the UK for 47 years has been told by the Home Office she may have to leave because she is now considered an illegal immigrant.

Winnie Birkenhead, from Burnley in Lancashire, came from Malaysia in 1967 on her mother's passport.

But her employers recently received a letter saying her permission to be in the UK had expired.

The Home Office said: "It is down to Ms Birkenhead to regularise her immigration status".

They added they would "consider any application we receive".

'Frightened'

Ms Birkenhead, who is a care worker, assumed she had become a British citizen along with her mother a year after moving to the UK.

"I've got a driving licence, I've got an NHS number - why was nothing picked up then? Why wasn't I told earlier and I would have done something about it."

She added: "I've paid my way in this country and my life is here, everything is here and I just can't understand why all this has happened. It frightens me to death that somebody could come and knock on my door and take me away."

Ms Birkenhead has been told she now has to apply for indefinite leave to remain in the UK - a process that could take between six months and a year.

She has also been warned she may not be able to work in the meantime.