United Kingdom - Passport & Nationality - British Citizenship by Double Descent (Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland)

Watch our BRITISH NATIONALITY WEBINAR where our two British nationality experts - Philip Gamble and Mishal Patel - discuss a family birth in Northern Rhodesia and its implications for claims to British nationality in the modern day.

This route to British nationality arises from a paternal grandfather's birth in Nyasaland or Northern Rhodesia before their independence as Malawi and Zambia. It arises where the:

 - Candidate born between 1 January 1964 and 31 December 1982;

 - Candidate's father born in one of the major Commonwealth countries formed on 1 January 1949 (South Africa, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh);

 - Candidate's paternal grandfather (i.e. their father's father) born in Northern Rhodesia or Nyasaland;

 - Father of the candidate's paternal grandfather born in the UK or Northern Ireland; AND

 - Candidate has the Right of Abode from a UK-born grandparent.

The candidate's father becomes a British citizen otherwise than by descent because he escapes the automatic loss of citizenship provisions enacted upon the independence of Zambia and Malawi. This allows his British nationality to pass down to his children.