TNAG-0902-FCO40-1112-Implications-for-Hong-Kong-of-changes-in-British-nationality-1979 — Page 81

The Present Law

4.

The provisions of the present law which relate to people who are connected

with the United Kingdom (rather than with colonies) are:-

(a)

a child born outside the United Kingdom is a citizen by descent

if his father was one by birth, naturalisation or registration in

the United Kingdom;

(b) descent to the second and later generations depends on two things:

(i)

it can be continued to subsequent generations if

successive fathers are themselves in Crown Service

at the time of the child's birth;

(ii) in foreign countries it is possible for the child

of a male citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies

to acquire citizenship of his birth is registered,

normally within 12 months, at a British Consulate.

Citizenship can be transmitted in this way to

successive generations without limit. In 1977, 732 children of the

second and later generations acquired citizenship in this way.

This arrangement applies to births in foreign countries only, not

to births in Commonwealth countries, and has its origins

in the time when all people born in the Empire were

simply British subjects. It is relevant to note that

in a thoroughgoing review of nationality law we could

hardly justify continuing this facility in foreign

countries without extending it to independent Commonwealth

countries.

(c) under the present law, a woman born in the United Kingdom does

not transmit her citizenship to her children born outside the

United Kingdom.

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