The following changes to the British Nationality Act 1981 will come into force on 13 January 2010 as part of the Government’s reforms on nationality and citizenship incorporated in the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009 (the Act):
- Children of British citizens by descent born overseas can now be registered as British citizens at any time before their eighteenth birthday. Previously registration had to be made within 12 months of birth.
- British Nationals (Overseas), which means Hong Kong residents prior to the handover to China, can now register as British citizens providing that they do not hold any other citizenship or nationality. They must also not have taken any action after 19 March 2009 that has resulted in the deliberate loss of another nationality, such as Chinese nationality. The above does not apply to those with Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passports supplied by the Chinese authorities after the handover of power to China.
- A person who has a British mother currently has the right to register as a British citizen if he or she was born between 7 February 1961 and 1 January 1983 and he or she would have become a British citizen if women had been able to pass on citizenship in the same way as men at that time. The new Act extends the provisions to those born before 1961.
