United Kingdom - Work Skills & Ancestry - British Passport & UK Ancestry Visa

If you meet the requirements of the UK Ancestry Visa, then you could also be eligible for a British Passport. There are provisions and anomalies in British Nationality law allowing a claim from a UK-born grandparent or great grandparent.

Requirements of the UK Ancestry Visa

The criteria for qualifying for a UK Ancestry Visa are:

• Any grandparent (a grandfather or a grandmother) born in the UK;
• You are 17 or older;
• You have a Commonwealth Passport (this includes Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada); AND
• Intention to move to the UK to live and work.

There are no financial requirements to be met, no upper age limit, and you can bring over your spouse and any dependent children.

 

How could I qualify for British Nationality?

Having a grandparent born in the UK means that one of your parents is (or was) British, or should have been classified as British had the law been gender equal at the time. If it can be shown that this parent is "British Otherwise Than by Descent" in the modern day, then British Nationality can be passed from this parent to you. In other words, British Nationality passes two generations - from your UK-born grandparent to you. In some cases, British nationality can pass three (or even four) generations.

Read more about getting a British Passport from a grandparent. Alternatively, complete our free online Nationality Assessment: 

 

Children under the age of 18 with a UK-born grandparent

There are additional provisions allowing children under the age of 18 to claim a UK Ancestry Passport from a British parent who was born outside of the UK. Read here for the circumstances where children can claim British Nationality.

How do I find out?

Given the complexities of British nationality legislation, and because we handle hundreds of complex 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 Route (as determined in Step 1 above), complete our FREE on-line 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: British Passport Review. 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, Possible, Unlikely or Remote answer.

• Step 4: Status Trace. 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 suggest you complete Steps 2 and 3 by:

1. Completing our FREE online Nationality Assessment
2. Ordering our FREE British Passport Review

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 British Passport Review. Once you have completed these two steps, we will contact you by phone or email and discuss your nationality situation and talk you through what steps you can take.

 

Key Terms

UK Ancestry Visa
Ancestry Visa UK
British Ancestry Visa
Ancestral Visa UK
UK Ancestral Visa