Global Mobility & Immigration Law

This article, which is the second in a miniseries on how to obtain a British passport, focuses on Naturalisation as a British Citizen.

British citizenship can be acquired in 3 ways: automatically by birth, by registration, or through the process of naturalisation.

To be a British citizen at birth, either of the following conditions must be met:

• Your mother was a British citizen or settled in the UK; or
• Your father was a British citizen or settled in the UK and was married to your mother at the time of your birth

To register as British citizen, one of the following conditions must be met at birth:

• Neither of your parents were British citizens or settled in the UK;
• Your father is a British citizen or settled in the UK, and he was not married to your mother; or
• You must not have spent more than 90 days outside the UK in each of the first 10 years of your life.

If you are married to a British citizen, you can apply immediately upon receiving settled status/Indefinite leave to remain (ILR) and are not required to wait for 12 months before submitting your application.

Read the entire article.