C. TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS
31. The new citizenships, proposed above, would be bestowed on ped who are Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies at the date of coming into force of the new legislation according to the same general principles as are set out in the Green Paper, with necessary differences to allow for the creation of three citizenships rather than two.
British Citizenship
32. On the day that new legislation comes into effect, British Citizenship would be acquired automatically by those Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies:-
(a) who have the right of abode in the United Kingdom through their birth, adoption, naturalisation or registration* in the United Kingdom;
(b) who have the right of abode by reason of having a parent or grandparent born, adopted, naturalised or registered in the United Kingdom;
(c) who have been married to a man who becomes, or would but for his death have become, a British Citizen;
(d) who have come from overseas and who have acquired the right of abode in the United Kingdom through being lawfully settled here.
33. Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies from overseas who have been lawfully here less than 5 years, and do not already have the right of abode, would acquire British Citizenship on completing 5 years residence provided they were then free of conditions of stay. (In the meantime they would have be- come Citizens of the British Dependent Territories or British Overseas Citizens according to the nature of their connection.)
34. The Government think it right that British Subjects without Citizenship and British Protected Persons who are lawfully settled in the United Kingdom should be able to benefit in the same way as the Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies referred to in paragraphs 32(d) and 33. But there is the difference that the holder of either of those statuses might find that the conferment of British Citizenship would have the effect of making him lose the citizenship of another country which he also holds; and this might be contrary to his wishes. Accordingly, it will be proposed in the Bill that a British Subject without Citizenship or a British Protected Person, lawfully settled here when the Act comes into force, should be entitled to be registered as a British Citizen on making an application, when he has been resident here for 5 years.
Citizenship of the British Dependent Territories
35. Citizenship of the British Dependent Territories would be acquired on the day that the legislation comes into force by a Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies:-
(a) who was born in what is still a dependency or Associated State when the legislation comes into force, or who obtained his citizenship by naturalisation or registration in such a place;
* with the exception of those referred to in paragraph 19.
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(b) who has or had a parent or grandparent who was born, naturalised or rtered in such a dependency or Associated State;
(who has been married to a man who becomes, or would but for his death have become, a Citizen of the British Dependent Territories.
British Overseas Citizenship
36. British Overseas Citizenship would be acquired by all those remaining Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies who do not become British Citizens or Citizens of the British Dependent Territories. Thus every Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies would acquire at least one of the new citizen- ships. The people who will become British Overseas Citizens are mainly those Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies who derive their present citizen- ship from a connection with a former colony etc.; many of them will have another citizenship or nationality.
D. BRITISH CITIZENSHIP-PERMANENT ARRANGEMENTS FOR
ACQUISITION ETC.
General Characteristics
37. As has been said above, British Citizenship will be the status of people closely connected with the United Kingdom. It will confer on the holder of it the right to enter and remain in the country without restriction. In this way we should move towards equating that right with citizenship, and so ending the confusion which has existed on this score since it first became necessary in 1962 to limit the right of entry of certain Commonwealth citizens and Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies.
38. Apart from this, the Bill, by establishing a British Citizenship, will make available a ready definition of those people who have a close connection with the United Kingdom. At present there is no satisfactory way of defining which people 'belong' to the United Kingdom for international or other purposes.
39. In framing their proposals the Government have been concerned that applicants should demonstrate a real connection with the United Kingdom and suitability for its citizenship. They do not think, for example, that simply because a person has lived in the country for a set time he ought to be able on that ground alone to claim our citizenship. Following the publication of the Green Paper some correspondents pressed for the re-introduction of the entitlement, which Commonwealth citizens formerly had, to obtain citizenship after living here for 5 years. The Government accept that after a definite period people whose stay in the country is free of conditions ought to be enabled to apply for our citizenship; but they think nonetheless that applicants should be expected to demonstrate a real intention to throw in their lot with this country.
40. Some of the more important features of the proposed new British Citizenship are dealt with in the following paragraphs.
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