United Kingdom - Passport & Nationality - British Citizenship

How can you qualify for BRITISH CITIZENSHIP and be eligible to get a British Passport? You can do so if the following criteria apply:

You are LIVING IN THE UK on a valid visa and intend to Naturalise as a British Citizen in due course. Read more about British Citizenship by Residency.

You were BORN IN THE UK* (or Northern Ireland) before 1983. You will have been classified as British Otherwise than by Descent, can hold a British Passport, and can pass British Nationality to your children, irrespective of where these children are born. Read more about British Citizenship by Birth.

You have a PARENT* who Naturalised before your birth or who was born in the UK (or Northern Ireland) before 1983. If you were born on or after 1 January 1983, then British nationality would have passed to you automatically (unless it is based on your father only and your parents weren't legally married at the time of your birth). If you were before 1 January 1983, then British nationality would have passed to you automatically through your father (but only if your parents were legally married at the time of your birth). If you were born before 1 January 1983 and your claim is through your mother, then you must first register as a British citizen. Read more about British Citizenship by Descent.

You have a GRANDPARENT or GREAT GRANDPARENT born in the UK (or Northern Ireland) and you meet one of the qualifying criteria. Read more about British Citizenship by Double Descent.

A child is UNDER 18, and they have a grandparent or great grandparent born in the UK (or Northern Ireland). Read more about the British Nationality rights of children under the age of 18.

* It gets more complicated if:

your parents weren't married at the time of your birth
you (or a parent) were adopted.

Non-Standard Claims

All other applications for British Citizenship are known as Non-Standard. Acquiring British Citizenship in such situations needs to be determined on a case-by-case basis, and would rely on the exceptions allowed through nationality law or the anomalies created by the drafting of old colonial nationality law.

How do I find out if I have a claim to British Citizenship?

Given the complex requirements of British nationality legislation, and because we handle hundreds of enquiries every day, we have developed a simple 4 STEP PROCESS as the most effective way of giving you the answer you’re looking for.

The steps are as follows:

Step 1: Standard vs Non-Standard. Determine whether you have a Standard claim to British Citizenship. You have a Standard claim if you were born in the UK before 1983, a parent was Naturalised before your birth, or you have a parent born in the UK before 1983 (provided that your parents were married at the time of your birth). All other claims are considered Non-Standard.

Step 2: Nationality Assessment: If you do NOT have a Standard claim (as determined in Step 1 above), complete our FREE online Nationality Assessment. Your input is filtered against the criteria of hundreds of Non-Standard British Citizenship solutions that we know of. Your Results Page - the final page on the assessment - will set out all your possible solutions.

Step 3: Status Trace. From your Results Page (reached in Step 2), you can instruct Philip Gamble (our founder and senior partner, and widely regarded as the world's leading expert on the subject) to review your family tree that you create in Step 2. By ordering this FREE review, you are asking Philip for his opinion on your chances of claiming British Citizenship. Philip will respond by email with a Definite, Likely, Unclear, Unlikely or Remote answer.

Step 4: Citizenship Report. You instruct Philip Gamble and his team of specialists in London to review copies of your family documents and research your rights to British Citizenship. After searching for any possible way in which you can qualify, they will write a detailed Nationality Report, giving you a Yes/No answer. A fee of £350 applies.

What should I do NOW?

To avoid incurring unnecessary research or application fees at this point, we ask you to complete Steps 2 and 3 by:

Completing our FREE online Nationality Assessment
Ordering our FREE Status Trace

You will receive a series of emails, setting out clearly the solutions that you appear to qualify for, as well as Philip’s response to your Status Trace. Once you have completed these two steps, we will contact you by phone or email to discuss your nationality situation and talk through what should happen next. This may involve advising you to instruct our team of British Citizenship specialists to look into your case further to provide a definitive answer (Step 4).

The United Kingdom recognises 5 forms of British Citizenship:

British Citizen

This is the traditional concept of British Nationality, known as full British Citizenship.

British Overseas Citizen (BOC)

This is a form of British Protection granted to those people born in a non-UK territory where foreign nationality was not granted at birth. It is possible to upgrade to full UK Citizenship in some circumstances.

British Protected Person (BPP)

This is a form of British Protection granted to those people born in a British Protected State or a British Protectorate. It is possible to upgrade to full British Citizenship in some circumstances.

British National Overseas (BNO)

This form of British Citizenship was granted to those with specific links to Hong Kong.

British Overseas Territories Citizen (BOTC)

This form of British Citizenship is based on birth, residency and "belonging" to the various British Overseas Territories.

The history of British Citizenship can be summarised as follows:

Pre 1949 - British Subject

1949 to 1983 - Citizen of the UK and Colonies (CUKC)

Post 1983 - British Citizen or British Overseas Citizen (BOC)

Qualifying British territories include:

British Crown Dominions

British Colonies

British Protectorates