Recent UK nationality law changes have now made it easier for some South Africans to claim British citizenship through UK-born grandparents.
According to immigration specialists, Sable International, an amendment to the British Nationality Act of 1981, known as “Section 4L”, which came into effect in 2022, means that many who previously would not have qualified for UK citizenship through a grandparent, can now apply.
Sable International’s director, John Dunn, said the section states that you can apply to be registered for British citizenship if you can show you would have become a British citizen had it not been for historical legislative unfairness, an act or omission of a public authority, or exceptional circumstances relating to your case.
“Historical legislative unfairness includes cases where you would have received or maintained British Subject status, CUKC (Citizen of the UK and Colonies) status, or British citizenship if the law had treated males and females equally, treated children of unmarried couples in the same way as children of married couples, or treated children of couples where the mother was married to someone other than the child’s biological father the same as children of couples where the mother was married to the natural father.
“Generally, British citizenship can only be passed down one generation through descent. That means that if your grandparent was born in the UK and then left and had a child outside of the UK (your parent), your parent could possibly claim British citizenship, but you would be unable to (although you might be able to apply for an Ancestry visa). In 2018, as a direct result of a Supreme Court judgment, a new route to British citizenship became available for those born in a foreign country to a UK-born maternal grandfather,” said Dunn.
Dunn also said that the UK added a set of limiting new provisions for certain classes of illegitimate children to be able to register as British citizens in 2016. However, he believes that these new provisions only benefited clients who would have been British citizens if their parents were married before their respective births, and not those who would be British citizens if their grandparents were married before the relevant parent’s birth.
“We believe Section 4L will address this unfairness. It is important to note that anyone who qualifies to register as a British citizen under the new law change, can register their children afterwards. Not only will the children be eligible to apply, but once they do, the children’s children will qualify. So with the new law amendment, it will technically go down two generations, which is not usually the case for British Citizenship,” said Dunn.
He also cautioned that an application for citizenship using Section 4L was complex as it required that you set out the precise legislation and section that you believe was discriminatory.