British citizenship for a stateless Person Aged 5-17 and born on or after 1 January 1983
Being stateless means that the person does not hold citizenship in any country. As per the international legal definition, a stateless is not deemed as a “national under the operations of law”. Under the law a stateless person can apply to register for British citizenship.
Who is Stateless in the UK?
A stateless person is not recognised as a national of any country and lacks legal residence and the right to return to the country of origin due to statelessness.
As they have nowhere to go, they can apply to stay in the UK and register for British nationality, provided they meet the definition and eligibility criteria.
Stateless Person Aged 5-17 and the applicant (child) was born on or after 1 January 1983 to be granted leave to remain.
A stateless person aged between 5 to 17 years can be granted British nationality. However, the caseworker before granting approval will ensure whether a child could reasonably acquire another citizenship.
The case worker will ensure that the parents pursue all reasonable avenues to obtain the nationality.
Home office requires case worker to also look into the laws and process in place for a particular country to make sure all the reasonable steps have been taken to obtain nationality for the child. Parents may be asked to provide further evidence to show they have taken all the reasonable steps to acquire another nationality for the child. In some cases, the parents claim that they could not register for citizenship due to the lack of evidence of their own nationality or the inability to reach authorities if they have been granted asylum and humanitarian protection. This may be acceptable but further evidence may be required.
Eligibility Requirements for Stateless Person Aged 5-17
To qualify, the stateless person must satisfy the following criteria to get permission to get British citizenship on the basis of statelessness:
- The applicant (child) was born on or after 1 January 1983 to be granted leave to remain
- The child was born and always has been stateless
- The applicant is aged between 5-17 years at the time of making the application
- The stateless child was in the UK or a British Overseas territory continuously for a period of 5 years
- In the 5-year qualifying period preceding application, the total absences from both the UK and the British Overseas Territories must not exceed 450 days
- They took reasonable steps to acquire another nationality of the relevant country but were unable to do so
Documentation Required
Since the burden of proof rests with the stateless person, it is mandatory for them to provide sufficient evidence to get the approval of the Home Office.
Evidence of no other nationality
As mentioned above the Home Office would like to see the evidence that child is not the national of any other country. Based on home office guidance this could be provided in form of:
- A letter from foreign authorities stating the applicant is not a national of the relevant country
- Responses by states and authorities on the enquiries about citizenship
- Evidence stating why the applicant is unable to acquire the nationality
- that they have contacted the authorities of the other country to request confirmation that the child is not a citizen, such as a copy of the request, and evidence that they emailed or posted it, or made an appointment at the Embassy or High Commission
- a copy of the authorities’ response
- that they have complied with the requirements of that country, such as completing any specified form and providing any required documents Where the parents have complied with the relevant requirements
Disclaimer:
The information in this blog is for general information purposes only and does not purport to be comprehensive or to provide legal advice. Whilst every effort is made to ensure the information and law is current as of the date of publication it should be stressed that, due to the passage of time, this does not necessarily reflect the present legal position. Connaught Law and authors accept no responsibility for loss that may arise from accessing or reliance on information contained in this blog. For formal advice on the current law please don’t hesitate to contact Connaught Law. Legal advice is only provided pursuant to a written agreement, identified as such, and signed by the client and by or on behalf of Connaught Law.
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