Citizenship and Nationality: How the Law Changed

1844 Naturalisation by certificate

Becoming a citizen later (naturalisation)

The Naturalization Act 1844 let a foreigner become a British subject by a certificate from the Home Secretary, instead of a private Act of Parliament.

1870 The right to give up British nationality

Losing and keeping citizenship

The Naturalization Act 1870 let a British subject renounce nationality; before it, the rule was 'once a subject, always a subject'.

1914 Wives take their husbands' nationality

Women, marriage and nationality

The British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act 1914 gave one nationality code for the Empire and provided that a woman who married a foreigner lost her British status.

1948 Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies

Citizenship by birth and descent

The British Nationality Act 1948 created citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies, with Commonwealth citizens keeping the status of British subjects.

1948 A wife's nationality no longer follows her husband's

Women, marriage and nationality

The British Nationality Act 1948 ended the rule that a woman's nationality changed automatically on marriage.

1983 End of citizenship by birth alone

Citizenship by birth and descent

The British Nationality Act 1981, in force from 1983, ended automatic citizenship for everyone born in the United Kingdom: a child now needs a parent who is a British citizen or settled.

2006 Unmarried fathers

Citizenship by birth and descent

From 2006, a child born to a British father who is not married to the mother can be a British citizen, as one born to a British mother always could.

1790 Naturalization Act of 1790

Becoming a citizen later (naturalisation)

The first naturalisation law limited it to 'free white persons' of good character after two years of residence.

1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford

Citizenship by birth and descent

The Supreme Court held that people descended from enslaved Africans could not be citizens of the United States.

1868 Fourteenth Amendment

Citizenship by birth and descent

The Fourteenth Amendment made everyone born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to its jurisdiction, a citizen, overruling Dred Scott.

1870 Naturalisation for people of African descent

Becoming a citizen later (naturalisation)

The Naturalization Act of 1870 extended naturalisation to 'aliens of African nativity and persons of African descent'.

1882 Chinese Exclusion Act

Becoming a citizen later (naturalisation)

The Chinese Exclusion Act barred Chinese labourers from entering and denied Chinese immigrants the right to naturalise.

1898 United States v. Wong Kim Ark

Citizenship by birth and descent

The Supreme Court held that a child born in the United States to Chinese parents is a citizen at birth.

1922 Cable Act

Women, marriage and nationality

The Cable Act ended the rule that a woman citizen lost her citizenship on marrying a foreigner, though it kept exceptions for women who married men barred from naturalising, which lasted until 1936.

1924 Indian Citizenship Act

Citizenship by birth and descent

The Indian Citizenship Act made Native Americans born in the United States citizens.

1943 Chinese exclusion repealed

Becoming a citizen later (naturalisation)

Congress repealed the Chinese Exclusion Acts in 1943 and let Chinese immigrants naturalise.

1952 McCarran-Walter Act

Becoming a citizen later (naturalisation)

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 removed the last racial bars to naturalisation, so that people of every race could become citizens.

1967 Afroyim v. Rusk

Losing and keeping citizenship

The Supreme Court held that Congress cannot take away a person's citizenship without the person's consent.

1804 Descent through the father

Citizenship by birth and descent

The Civil Code made French nationality pass by descent from a French father, in place of the older rule based on birth in the kingdom.

1851 Double jus soli

Citizenship by birth and descent

A law of 7 February 1851 made French a child born in France to a foreign parent who had also been born in France.

1889 Born in France, French at majority

Citizenship by birth and descent

A law of 26 June 1889 made a child born in France to foreign parents French at the age of majority unless he or she declined.

1927 Faster naturalisation

Becoming a citizen later (naturalisation)

A law of 10 August 1927 cut the period of residence for naturalisation to three years.

1927 A French woman keeps her nationality

Women, marriage and nationality

The same law of 1927 provided that a French woman who married a foreigner kept her French nationality unless she chose to take her husband's.

1940 Review of naturalisations

Losing and keeping citizenship

A Vichy law of 22 July 1940 ordered a review of all naturalisations since 1927; about 15,000 people lost their French nationality, some 6,000 of them Jews.

1945 Nationality Code

Becoming a citizen later (naturalisation)

An ordinance of 19 October 1945 brought the French nationality rules into a single code, the Code de la nationalité.

1973 Mothers and fathers equal

Women, marriage and nationality

A law of 9 January 1973 let a French mother pass French nationality to her child on the same terms as a father.

1993 A declaration of will

Citizenship by birth and descent

The Pasqua law of 1993 required a person born in France to foreign parents to declare, between 16 and 21, that he or she wished to be French.

1998 Automatic again at eighteen

Citizenship by birth and descent

The Guigou law of 1998 restored automatic French nationality at 18 for those born in France to foreign parents who have lived there, ending the declaration.

1913 Descent only

Citizenship by birth and descent

The Reich and State Nationality Law of 1913 based German citizenship on descent from a German parent, which remained the rule until 2000.

1935 Reich Citizenship Law

Losing and keeping citizenship

The Reich Citizenship Law of September 1935, one of the Nuremberg Laws, limited citizenship to people of 'German blood' and reduced German Jews to 'state subjects'.

1949 Protection in the Basic Law

Losing and keeping citizenship

The Basic Law of 1949 forbids depriving a German of citizenship and lets those whose citizenship was taken away between 1933 and 1945 regain it.

1974 Mothers pass on nationality

Women, marriage and nationality

In 1974 the Federal Constitutional Court held unconstitutional the rule that only a German father could pass on citizenship to a child born in wedlock; a law of 1975 followed.

2000 Birth in Germany counts

Citizenship by birth and descent

The nationality law reform in force from 2000 made a child born in Germany to foreign parents a German citizen if a parent had lived there legally for eight years.

2014 No forced choice

Losing and keeping citizenship

In 2014 Germany ended the duty of those who grew up in the country, with two nationalities from birth, to choose one at adulthood.

2024 Dual citizenship allowed

Becoming a citizen later (naturalisation)

A law in force from June 2024 generally allows dual citizenship and shortens the residence needed for naturalisation from eight years to five.