British Overseas Citizen - Future of British Overseas Citizenship

Future of British Overseas Citizenship

The 2002 Act resolved the issue of de facto statelessness for most BOCs; however, those who lost their other nationalities after 4 July 2002 are not eligible. This means that de facto statelessness can still be an issue for BOCs in situations like the following:

• A BOC acquires a BOC passport after 4 July 2002, and the country of his other nationality (e.g. Malaysia) considers the acquisition of a foreign passport to mean an automatic relinquishment of that country's citizenship.

• A BOC holds citizenship of a country (e.g. Kenya) that permits dual citizenship only for minors, and that requires such minors to renounce all other nationalities at the age of majority. (For example, those with BOC and Kenyan citizenship as minors will automatically lose their Kenyan citizenship at age 21 if they do not renounce their British Nationality then.) Such BOCs will be de facto stateless if they reach the age of majority after 4 July 2002 as they cannot benefit from the 2002 Act.

Of all the six classes of British nationality, only the status of British citizen carries with it the right of abode somewhere (in this case the UK). However, in practice, British Overseas Territories Citizens (except those associated with the Sovereign bases in Cyprus) were granted full British citizenship in 2002, British Nationals (Overseas) have right of abode in Hong Kong, British subjects and British Protected Persons lose their statuses upon acquisition of another nationality (except British subjects connected the Republic of Ireland, who have the right to live and work in the UK anyway because of EU treaties) and so should be eligible for registration as British Citizens under the 2002 Act.

This makes British Overseas Citizens unique in that their nationality status is not associated with the right of residence anywhere in the world.

In 2007-2008, Lord Goldsmith suggested in his Citizenship Review that the category of British Overseas Citizenship (along with other residual classes of British Nationality) be abolished, and existing BOCs be given a window to register as British Citizens. However, this suggestion was never made into law.