British citizenship by registration

Registration is a statutory entitlement or discretionary provision available to particular groups, principally children and people with a specific connection to the UK, including certain British nationals without citizenship and people affected by historical unfairness in nationality law.

Where an entitlement exists, the Home Office must register the applicant if the conditions are met. That is a different exercise from the discretionary assessment in naturalisation.

These include children born in the UK who were not British at birth but whose parent later becomes British or settled, children born in the UK who have lived here for the first ten years of their life, and adults who would have become British but for historical discrimination in the law relating to mothers, unmarried fathers and certain overseas territories.

There is also discretionary registration for children where the Home Secretary considers it appropriate, which is where most family cases are argued.

Because each provision has its own conditions, the first task is identifying which one applies. Applying under the wrong provision costs both the fee and the time.

We work from the family's nationality and immigration history, including documents from other countries where needed, to establish the correct basis before anything is submitted.