can you lose your british citizen status/passport...?

[ronell1984]

hi, i've lived in the uk for many years now and was naturalised as a british citizen and have held a UK passport for roughly 6 years now. i also still have my south african passport (dual citizenship). i want to spend a year travelling and working around the world, but am worried about losing my british citizenship/passport.

does anyone know exactly the period of time you are required to be in the country each year? my parents always said i cant go away for more than 9 months of the year.. not sure if that is still true.. please help!

[vinny]

Unless you give up your British Citizenship, the withdrawal of your citizenship (deprivation) is possible only under limited circumstances. I don't think that there is a time limit for absences from the UK.

[parvus1202]

I think you can lose it if you acquire with fraud.

[Christophe]

You can't lose your British citizenship by not being in the UK.

You can lose your British citizenship by making a formal voluntary renunciation of it — but note that this has to be in the form approved by the Home Office and before a British government official (in other words, not merely as part of, say, the taking of an oath on acquiring another citizenship).

You can lose your British citizenship if it was acquired through fraud.

You can also lose your British citizenship, in certain circumstances, under some of the recent provisions aimed at anti-terrorism.

Some countries do have, or have had, residence requirements for the retention of citizenship, but the UK is not one of them. You might be confusing British citizenship with indefinite leave to remain, retention of which does require that you continue to be living in the UK.

So, absolutely no problem travelling/working round the world for a year (or more). It would be a good idea though to make sure that your British passport won't be expiring while you're away, since a routine renewal somewhere that you don't live and don't know anyone (to countersign the application and so on) is not as easy as renewal where you live.

Have a good year's travelling!

[ronell1984]

thank you very much for the responses. that has been really useful! i think i must be confusing it with the 'leave to remain' legislation because i did have that for a while before i received my british passport.

thanks again