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Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009

The Act makes the process of attaining British citizenship longer and more difficult. Under the new system, only citizens and permanent residents would have full access to benefits, including social housing.

Under the current rules anyone wishing to apply for citizenship would have to live in the UK for three years if he or she is a spouse of a British citizens or five years in other cases.

Under the rules of the Act, anyone wishing to apply for citizenship would have to live in the UK for a minimum of five years and also spend an additional year proving they deserve citizenship

Ways of proving this include:

• working legally and supporting yourself
• paying taxes
• giving back to the community through volunteer work
• learning to speak English

Breaking the law, even with minor crimes, would lengthen the application process. Anyone sent to prison for a serious crime could face deportation.

The Act also:

• requires the UK Border Agency to safeguard the welfare of children in its work
• gives automatic British nationality to a child born in the UK where at least one parent is a foreign or commonwealth member of the British armed forces
• remedies the situation whereby a father of a child born abroad before 1961 can pass on his British nationality while a mother cannot

More information

• borders, citizenship and immigration act - link to Act and explanatory notes

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