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Citizenship by Descent from Father (Illegitimacy)

The previous position under the British Nationality Act 1981, was that a child born out of wedlock to a British father did not automatically acquire any statutory entitlement to British nationality. The Home Office did have a wide discretion to register such a child under their general powers in Section 3 of the Act, but this required a separate application, and was considered according to the published policy.

Section 9 of the Nationality Immigration & Asylum Act 2002 was an attempt to correct this situation, enabling a nationality benefit to flow to the child, but this section was itself subject to a Commencement Order, and for the last 4 years, no such order had been made.

The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (Commencement No 11) Order 2006 now brings this provision into force. A set of regulations has also been brought in, which set out the various requirements needed to prove the paternity of the child. These are the British Nationality (Proof of Paternity) Regulations 2006. Both the Regulations and Section 9 come into force on 1st July 2006. Children born after this date will benefit, but children born earlier will still have to go through the Section 3 registration procedure.

The father of the child may prove they are the male parent (unless they are identified as the –father” by a separate provision under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, legislation which deals with IVF and related medical procedures) in a number of ways:

Relevant evidence may then be submitted with an application for the child to be issued with a passport, in much the same way that legitimate children now do, or children with a British mother.