Introduction

The British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Act 2024 received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024. It provides for a new mode of acquisition of British citizenship for Irish citizens resident in the United Kingdom. It provides for registration by entitlement as a British citizen on application. In so doing, it eases the route to British citizenship as it has fewer of the requirements imposed on those seeking to naturalise as British citizens under the British Nationality Act 1981 (‘the 1981 Act’), s 6.

The appetite for this new provision might be thought to be modest; Irish citizens are not ordinarily subject to UK immigration control (Immigration Act 1971, ss 1(3), 3ZA, 9, 11) and as a matter of practicality are free to come into, to go from, and to work in the UK with the same ease as British citizens. Further, possession of Irish citizenship carries rights of free movement to enter, reside, work, and settle in other European Union states while British citizenship does not. Yet, the new Act’s provision has some utility and is of interest in particular to a number of Irish citizens born in the Republic of Ireland, resident in Northern Ireland, who identify as British.

The provisions of the Act

The Act itself is a slight thing consisting of two sections. It inserts s 4AA into the 1981 Act. That new section provides for an Irish citizen on application to be entitled to register as a British citizen on satisfaction of prescribed requirements. A person must be in the UK at the beginning of the period of five years ending with the date of their application, not absent for more than 450 days in that period of five years, and not absent for more than 90 days in the period of 12 months ending with the date of application. Further, the person must not be in breach of UK immigration laws at any time in the period of five years ending with the date of their application. In the special circumstances of a particular case, if the Secretary of State thinks fit, she may treat the person as satisfying a requirement even if they do not in fact satisfy it.

As with certain other provisions for registration and naturalisation under the 1981 Act, this new registration route is subject to the provisions of the Illegal Migration Act 2023 (ss 31, 32, and 36) that place restrictions on eligibility for citizenship for certain persons on the basis of matters such as initial irregular arrival to the UK; restrictions that in practice that have yet to prove a barrier in citizenship applications.

Of more substance is the requirement for an applicant aged 10 years or older to satisfy the Secretary of State that they are of good character at the date of decision. By such means this new entitlement to British citizenship is made subject to an evaluative test.

The Act extends to the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, and the British overseas territories. It comes into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by regulations made by statutory instrument appoint.

Advantages

An applicant need only be an Irish citizen on the date of application; prior to that moment, there is no need for them to have been an Irish citizen in the five years’ down to the date of application. As a result, a person may be present in the UK in those five years as a non-Irish citizen alien/person subject to UK immigration control; hence the provision made to ensure they are not present in breach of immigration control as a requirement for registration.

In the nationality law codes of states, outside of provision made in the context of decolonisation, it is uncommon to find a mode of acquisition such as the new s 4AA of the 1981 Act, whereby the mode of acquisition of one state’s nationality is predicated on possession of another state’s nationality. However, the intimate relations between the UK and Ireland and the intermingling of its peoples has both a historic colonial background and a present political context in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement/Belfast Agreement wherein the people of Northern Ireland have the birthright to assert their identity as Irish, British, or both. It is against that backcloth that the new provision is made.

What is of particular interest is that a person who migrates from a third country to the Republic of Ireland on any basis, thereafter may secure residence there (under Irish law), thereafter may secure Irish citizenship (under Irish law), thereafter may freely move to and reside in the UK (under UK law) and, subject only to a good character test, thereafter may have an entitlement to be granted British citizenship.

Further, as regards advantages, unlike the provision made for naturalisation as a British citizen under s 6 of the 1981 Act, s 4AA registration is open to minors as well as adults. In addition, unlike the provision for naturalisation, there is no requirement to satisfy requirements as to language and as to knowledge of life in the UK, nor a requirement to state one’s future intentions. Moreover, while naturalisation is at discretion, registration under s 4AA is by entitlement (albeit there is a good character test). Finally, although subject to regulations yet-to-be-made, it is anticipated that the fee for registration under s 4AA may be less than that for naturalisation.

What s 4AA registration has in common with the provision for naturalisation as a British citizen in s 6(1) of the 1981 Act is that there are UK residence-related criteria for the five years down to the date of application; as regards those aged 18 or over, there are requirements to attend a citizenship ceremony, take the oath of allegiance to the Crown, and make a pledge of loyalty to the United Kingdom; and there is a requirement to satisfy the Secretary of State as to good character (all naturalisation applicants, being adults; and those registration applicants aged 10 or over).

Discussion

The Act started life in the House of Commons as a Private Member’s Bill promoted by Gavin Robinson MP (Democratic Unionist Party). That Bill focused specifically on persons born in the Republic of Ireland who resided thereafter in Northern Ireland. It was to apply to persons born on or after 1 January 1949. It was intended to mirror the provisions for those born in what is now the Republic of Ireland prior to that date.

Although little known, persons born in what is now the territory of the Republic of Ireland prior to 1 January 1949, remain able to assert their status as British subjects (not citizens) under the 1981 Act, s 31; see my post Irish British Subjects. Those that do so may go on to apply for registration by entitlement as British citizens under s 4(2) of the 1981 Act. The provision for assertion of British subject status for persons born in what is now the Republic of Ireland prior to 1949 (when it was Eire) is thought to have been little used. The Common Travel Area rights of Irish citizens in the UK (found presently in the Immigration Act 1971 and elsewhere) render the need to assert status as a British subject and possibly to acquire British citizenship by entitlement of little practical benefit, albeit that issues of identity and the desire to belong to the UK as British may be of substance too.

In January 2024, the UK Government (and indeed the Labour opposition) decided to back the Bill; see the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper (CP 1021, 31 January 2024, Annex B, §§11-12) with the ambition of matching the ease with which the people of Northern Ireland may obtain Irish citizenship. It did so as part of the negotiations with the Democratic Unionist Party that aimed to restore the Northern Ireland Assembly and Government (ibid. p. 2, §2.) However, as a result of Government involvement, the scope of the Bill was widened: to extend to Irish citizens wherever born, to require residence in the UK rather than merely Northern Ireland, and to remove the requirement to be born on or after 1 January 1949.

Thus, the Act may be of benefit to the hundreds of thousands Irish citizens resident in Great Britain were they to wish to become British citizens. However, it remains the case that its most enthusiastic welcome is likely to be among Irish citizens born in the Republic of Ireland, resident in Northern Ireland, who identify as British.

Outside of that cohort, Irish citizens who benefit as Irish citizens from the right to live and work in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the Member States of the European Union may, for want of practical benefit or for reasons of sentiment, balk at a requirement to be assessed by the Secretary of State to see whether they are of good character and at a requirement to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown.

That said, other reasons may be found to apply for registration. For example, there may be countries around the World where being a British citizen offers advantages under local immigration rules, or an applicant may have formed an attachment to the UK as their country of residence and desire to see that legally affirmed, or an applicant from a mixed nationality family may wish to travel on a passport of the same nationality as their partner or other family members such as their children. Thus, if the fee level is modest, there may be greater appetite from Irish citizens to apply for registration beyond that stimulated by the motivation of identifying as British while resident in Northern Ireland.