United Kingdom - Passport & Nationality - British Citizenship by Double Descent (Nyasaland Mother)

Listen to our BRITISH NATIONALITY WEBINAR on Malawi where our two British nationality experts - Philip Gamble and Mishal Patel - discuss a family birth in Nyasaland and its implications for claims to British nationality in the modern day.

This rare set of circumstances leads to a claim to British nationality in the modern day. It relies on:

• Candidate born after the independence of Nyasaland (now Malawi);
• Mother born in Nyasaland before its independence as Malawi;
• The mother is a British Subject by Descent; AND
• The Right of Abode through a UK-born grandparent.

The solution arises because the mother does not become a Malawian citizen upon independence and maintains her British Subject status (by descent). Recent changes to British nationality law to remedy gender disrimination in the older law now allows such claims to come down the maternal line.