United Kingdom - Info - British Citizenship and Bechuanaland
Listen to our BRITISH NATIONALITY WEBINAR where our two British nationality experts - Philip Gamble and Mishal Patel - discuss a family birth in Bechuanaland and its implications for claims to British nationality in the modern day.
Bechuanaland was a British Protectorate up until its independence on 30 September 1966. From that point, Botswana became (and still is today) an independent Commonwealth country.
A birth in Bechuanaland gave the status of British Protected Person (or BPP). Upon independence, this BPP status was either retained or lost depending on the circumstances of each person. The rules as to whether a person became a citizen of Botswana or not were determined by the Independence Day arrangements and the new Constitution.
We have found several British nationality solutions that arise from a birth in Bechuanaland:
British Citizenship by Double Descent (48-5(1)a Botswana)
British Citizenship by Double Descent (Bechuanaland)
British Citizenship (Bechuanaland Birth - Married to British man)
British Citizenship (Bechuanaland Birth)
British Overseas Citizen (BOC) - Bechuanaland Parent
British Protected Person (BPP) - Bechuanaland