Right of abode in the United Kingdom


The right of abode is an immigration status in the United Kingdom that gives a person the right to enter and live in the UK. It was introduced by the Immigration Act 1971 which went into effect on 1 January 1973. This status is held by British citizens, certain British subjects, as well as certain Commonwealth citizens with specific connections to the UK before 1983. Since 1983, it is not possible for a person to acquire this status without being a British citizen.
The right of abode is the most common immigration status in the UK due to its association with British citizenship. However, it should not be confused with the indefinite leave to remain, another form of long-term residency status in the UK which is more comparable to other countries' permanent residence status.

Rights and privileges of the right of abode

All individuals who have the right of abode in the UK enjoy the following rights and privileges:
Unlike the indefinite leave to remain, a person's right of abode is valid for life and will not lapse regardless how long they stay outside the UK and cannot be revoked unless they lose their Commonwealth or British citizenship, or, for Commonwealth citizens, when the Home Secretary deemed it necessary for "the public good". In comparison, a person's ILR status may be revoked if they had remained outside the UK for more than two years and they were refused a resident return visa.
In addition, those with the right of abode who are not yet British citizens may apply for British citizenship by naturalisation. Children born in the United Kingdom, British Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories to those with the right of abode in the UK will normally be British citizens by birth automatically.

History of right of abode before 1983

Prior to the enactment of British Nationality Act 1981, right of abode in the UK was mainly determined by a mix of one's connection with the UK and their nationality status.
The Immigration Act 1971 limited the right to enter and live in the United Kingdom to certain subsets of Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies with ties to the UK itself.
The following two categories of persons had right of abode:
; Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies
CUKCs who met any of the following requirements acquired right of abode between 1973 and 1983.
; Commonwealth citizens
Any Commonwealth citizens who met one of the requirements below would also acquire right of abode between 1973 and 1983.
Right of abode was limited to CUKCs and Commonwealth citizens, therefore certain people with connections to the UK were not eligible even if they had a UK-born parent. For example, a person born to a UK-born CUKC mother and a non-Commonwealth citizen father in the United States would not acquire right of abode as they possessed neither CUKC status nor Commonwealth citizenship. However, the same person would obtain right of abode if born in Canada, due to Canada's membership in the Commonwealth, even when they would not be a CUKC or, since 1983, a British citizen.

"So had it" language

That wording of the measure introduced minor confusion into the concept of the right of abode, when it limited right of abode through descent to a CUKC who had a parent who had CUKC status by "birth, adoption, naturalisation or.... registration in the United Kingdom or in any of the islands" or a grandparent CUKC who "at the time of that birth or adoption so had it".
Whether "so had it" referred to a grandparent who was had CUKC status generally or CUKC status from the UK and islands specifically was decided by courts to refer to the latter.
As the right of abode on 31 December 1982 was necessary to become a British citizen on 1 January 1983 under the British Nationality Act 1981, this meant that failing to meet the interpretation of the right of abode test above resulted in no British citizenship through that route.
The British Nationality Act 1981 modified the right of abode section of the Immigration Act 1971 to remove the wording at issue, although the former version still had effect for determinations of British citizenship through right of abode for persons born before 1983 and potentially their descendants.

Effect on British citizenship under British Nationality Act 1981

CUKCs with right of abode would in 1983 become British citizens, whereas Commonwealth citizens' nationality status remained unchanged. However, any person who had voluntarily or involuntarily lost their CUKC status between 1973 and 1983 would also lose their right of abode. Consequently, this would also mean that they would have no legal status in the UK. This issue was highlighted in the 2018 Windrush scandal.
The introduction of the right of abode principle effectively created two tiers of CUKCs: those with right of abode and those without right of abode, both of which shared the same nationality status until 1983. The latter group would become either British Dependent Territories citizens or British Overseas citizens that year, depending on whether they had a connection with a British Dependent Territory.

Acquisition of the right of abode

Since 1983, right of abode is established by the British Nationality Act 1981 and subsequent amendments, although the 1981 Act did not deprive any person's right of abode providing that they had retained the right on 31 December 1982.
Two categories of persons hold right of abode:
; British citizens
All persons who became British citizens on or since 1 January 1983 have the right of abode in the British Islands.
; Commonwealth citizens and British subjects who retained their right of abode prior to 1983
Right of abode is also retained by a Commonwealth citizen or a British subject who, on 31 December 1982:
For this purpose, the UK includes the Republic of Ireland prior to 1 April 1922.
No person born in 1983 or later can have the right of abode unless he or she is a British citizen.
It is essential that the person concerned should have held Commonwealth citizenship or British subject status on 31 December 1982 and has not voluntarily or involuntarily ceased to be a Commonwealth citizen after that date. For this reason, citizens of Pakistan and South Africa are generally not entitled to the right of abode in the UK as these countries were not Commonwealth members on 1 January 1983, unless they have citizenship in another Commonwealth country. However, citizens of Fiji and Zimbabwe are still continuously considered to be Commonwealth citizens for nationality purposes even after the two countries' withdrawal the Commonwealth because the UK has not amended Schedule 3 to the British Nationality Act 1981 to that effect. Since 1983, the only two countries that withdrew their Commonwealth membership and were subsequently removed from Schedule 3 are The Gambia and Maldives, and, consequently, their citizens would have lost their right of abode on the day these countries were removed from Schedule 3 unless also holding British citizenship or citizenship of another country listed in Schedule 3.
A woman claiming the right of abode through marriage will cease to qualify if another living wife or widow of the same man:
However, this restriction does not apply to a woman who:
An individual may be able to claim the right of abode in the United Kingdom through more than one route.
For example, a woman who was a New Zealand citizen and married to a CUKC with right of abode on 31 December 1982, and who subsequently moves to the UK with her husband and naturalises as British citizen can claim the right of abode in the UK both through her British citizenship and through her status as a Commonwealth citizen who was married to a CUKC with right of abode on 31 December 1982. Therefore, if she were to renounce her British citizenship, she would still hold right of abode as a Commonwealth citizen married to a CUKC. However, if she were to renounce her New Zealand citizenship, she would permanently lose her ability to claim a right of abode through her Commonwealth citizenship and marriage to a British citizen on 31 December 1982, and would only be able to claim a right of abode through her British citizenship.

Proof of the right of abode

The only legally recognised documents proving an individual's right of abode in the UK are the following:
An individual who has the right of abode in the UK but does not have or is ineligible for such a British passport can apply for a certificate of entitlement to be affixed inside his/her other passport or travel document.
For example, a US citizen who has naturalised as a British citizen can apply for a certificate of entitlement to be affixed inside his or her US passport to prove that he or she is free from immigration restrictions in the UK, rather than obtaining a British passport. A British Overseas Territories Citizen from the British Virgin Islands who is also a British citizen can apply for a certificate of entitlement to be affixed inside his or her British Virgin Islands passport to prove that he or she is free from immigration restrictions in the UK, rather than obtaining a British citizen passport.
In contrast, a New Zealand citizen who has right of abode but is not a British citizen must hold a valid certificate of entitlement in their New Zealand passport in order to be exempt from immigration control in the UK, otherwise they will be treated as subject to immigration control by UK Border Force officers at a port of entry.
A certificate of entitlement costs £372 when issued in the UK and £388 when issued outside the UK. This is considerably more expensive than obtaining a British passport.

Other United Kingdom immigration concessions

United Kingdom immigration laws allow settlement to other categories of persons; however, although similar in practice these do not constitute a formal right of abode and the full privileges of the right of abode are not necessarily available.

Irish citizens and the Common Travel Area

Before 1949, all Irish citizens were considered under British law to be British subjects. After Ireland declared itself a republic in that year, a consequent British law gave Irish citizens a similar status to Commonwealth citizens in the United Kingdom, despite them ceasing to be such. Unlike Commonwealth citizens, Irish citizens have generally not been subject to entry control in the United Kingdom and, if they move to the UK, are considered to have 'settled status'. They may be subject to deportation from the UK upon the same lines as other European Economic Area nationals. In February 2007 the British government announced that an especially lenient procedure would apply to the deportation of Irish citizens compared to the procedure for other European Economic Area nationals. As a result, Irish nationals are not routinely considered for deportation from the UK when they are released from prison.

EU, EEA, and Swiss nationals in the UK

In the Immigration Regulations 2006, the United Kingdom declared that most citizens of EEA member states and their family members should be treated as having only a conditional right to reside in the UK. This has implications should such a person wish to remain permanently in the United Kingdom after ceasing employment, claim social assistance, apply for naturalisation or acquire British citizenship for a UK-born child.
Those EU/EEA/Swiss nationals who would be treated as holding permanent residency in the UK include:
These persons remain liable to deportation on public security grounds.
Following Brexit, all EEA citizens' right to reside in the UK, including their permanent residence, will cease, although the UK government announced in October 2018 that any EEA citizen who takes up residence on or before 31 December 2020, or already took up residence, will be eligible to apply for either settlement or pre-settlement status from 30 March 2019 to 30 June 2021. EEA citizens wishing to take up residence in the UK after 2020 will not be given preferential immigration status. Status of Irish citizens in the UK will not be affected as it pre-dates EEA legislation.

Indefinite leave to remain

is a form of UK permanent residence that can be held by non-EU/EEA/Swiss citizens, but it does not confer a right of abode.

British Overseas Territories

All British overseas territories operate their own immigration controls, which apply to British citizens as well as to those from other countries. These territories generally have local immigration laws regulating who has belonger status in that territory.