Home Office view of Indian nationality law

The Home Office has updated the Nationality Instructions:
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/ind/en ... nex_h.html

Dual Citizenship

6.1 Indian citizenship cannot normally be held in combination with any other citizenship. Section 9 of the 1955 Act provides that

"Any citizen of India who by naturalisation, registration or otherwise voluntarily acquires.....the citizenship of another country..... shall, upon such acquisition,..... cease to be a citizen of India".

6.2 This means that no adult (18 and over) can hold Indian citizenship in conjunction with any other nationality or citizenship. This applies irrespective of whether the person holds any passports (either Indian or that of their other nationality/citizenship).

6.3 Further, if an Indian minor obtains another nationality or citizenship (for example by registration as a BN(O)) the child will automatically lose its Indian citizenship. This applies even where the registration is made by the parents/guardian on behalf of the child.

6.4 The only exception to this general ban on dual citizenship is where a child is a dual national by birth. In such cases that child can remain a dual citizen until either:
a. they obtain a passport in their other citizenship (while under the age of 18 ); or
b. they reach the age of majority (18 )

6.5 If a child who is a dual national by birth fails to renounce their other citizenship prior to reaching the age of majority or acquires a passport in their other nationality before reaching the age of 18 they will lose Indian citizenship.


It's unclear how the logic in section 6.2 to 6.5 flows from 6.1 in cases where Indian plus another citizenship is acquired at birth, but this seems to be the outcome of discussions the Home Office has had with the Indian authorities.


Indian Overseas Citizenship

7.5 For the purposes of British nationality law, OCI is considered to be citizenship of another State. This will be relevant where British law requires the person to be stateless (as, for example, in Schedule 2 to the British Nationality Act 1981) or to have no citizenship or nationality apart from a qualifying form of British nationality (as, for example, in s.4B to the 1981 Act). In these cases, confirmation of non-acquisition of OCI should be sought where the applicant appears to satisfy the criteria in paragraph 7.4 above

It seems that anyone wishing to contest this interpretation will have to challenge it in the courts.

7.5 For the purposes of British nationality law, OCI is considered to be citizenship of another State. This will be relevant where British law requires the person to be stateless (as, for example, in Schedule 2 to the British Nationality Act 1981) or to have no citizenship or nationality apart from a qualifying form of British nationality (as, for example, in s.4B to the 1981 Act). In these cases, confirmation of non-acquisition of OCI should be sought where the applicant appears to satisfy the criteria in paragraph 7.4 above

Not sure this can survive a court challenge. OCI is only a visa endorsement on a foreign travel document and is invalid without a valid passport. So the implicit indication above that one can be an OCI without any other citizenship is fundamentally flawed as in its current form, that is impossible.

I can't blame the home office for being unclear on this. The babus in the Indian civil service have done their best to make this one of the most obscure and obfuscated policies ever to issue forth from even their distinguished hands.

I think we should keep all this discussion under this thread http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=4779

Else this would duplicate the topic.

IMHO - Mods should lock this thread. I have already copied the two messages in the above thread.