United Kingdom - Passport & Nationality - British Nationality

You could be eligible for BRITISH NATIONALITY in the following circumstances:

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 through 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 Nationality by Birth.

You have a PARENT* (a father or mother) who Naturalised before your birth, or was born in the UK (or Northern Ireland) before 1983. Your parent will have been classified as British Otherwise than by Descent, hold a British Passport, and they can pass British Nationality to their children, irrespective of where these children are born. Read more about British Nationality by Descent.

You have a GRANDPARENT born in the UK (or Northern Ireland). Read more about British Nationality by Double Descent.

You are UNDER 18, and you 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 your parent) were adopted.

Non-Standard Claims

All other applications for British Nationality are known as Non-Standard. Acquiring British Nationality in such situations need 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 Nationality?

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 Nationality. 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 Nationality 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 Nationality. Philip will respond by email with a Definite, Likely, Possible, 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 Nationality. 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 UK Nationality 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 Nationality.

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 Nationality in some circumstances.

British Protected Person (BPP)

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

British National Overseas (BNO)