British Citizenship: British Nationality Law Changes

The South African |  29 Nov 2022

The new British Nationality & Borders Bill will be good news for people who can qualify for British Citizenship under the new rules. 

SA Migration is delighted to inform clients that we are one step closer to the British Nationality and Borders Bill being passed. These changes will bode good news for many persons who can qualify for British Citizenship under the new nationality rules, who did not qualify under the old rules. The new routes to British Citizenship will be called special cases.

Home Office caseworkers will determine all applications as per the Home Office Guidance. In certain instances, the Home Office will have a very broad discretion to register minor children as British Citizens. The Bill will also give power to the Home Office to register adults as British Citizens for the so-called “historical legislative unfairness”, an act or omission of a public authority, or other “exceptional circumstances”. 

All of these registration applications will be subject to the good character test. 

Removing Discriminatory Aspects

The so-called Romein case has identified many discriminatory aspects in respect of Nationality laws, being:

• Children born outside the citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies Territories could only transmit nationality over one generation unless they registered at a UK consulate. 

• Mothers and unmarried fathers again were deprived as they could not register then. 

Fortunately, the UK Government will amend the legislation to remove the historic registration requirement. There are three major objectives of the Bill, which are:

• To address the historic inability of mothers and unmarried fathers to transmit British Overseas Territories Citizenship leading to a possible entitlement to full British Citizenship

• Registration as a British Citizen due to historical injustice

• Discretionary waiver of residence criteria for naturalization.

 We foresee that the following persons might benefit from the Nationality and Borders Bill being:

• persons born before 1983 with a UK born maternal grandmother; 

• persons with mothers were born as British Subjects and with a UK born paternal grandfather; 

• persons born between 1983 -1987 with a UK born maternal grandmother; 

• persons born between 1983 – 1987 with a UK born paternal grandmother; 

• If you are a male, born before 1983 and married to a female British Citizen; 

• if your husband has a UK born mother and he was born before 1983;

• if your wife has a UK born mother and she was born before 1983;

• if you have a UK born mother and you were born before 1983;

• If your wife was born in the United Kingdom before 1983

www.samigration.com