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https://www.gov.uk/register-british-citizen/stateless-people —

You may be able to register as a British citizen if you don’t have any form of citizenship or nationality - that is, if you’re a ‘stateless person’.

How to apply depends on when and where you were born. In all cases you must be stateless and have always been stateless.

How would a person be born without any citizenship?

gerrit
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WGroleau
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  • I came across a curious example a couple of years back for somebody wishing to get UK citizenship for their child. It was amazing digging through all of those countries' citizenship laws (US, UK, Oman, Hong Kong, Lebanon) to sort that out. Parents were British by descent, mother had renounced US ctizenship and also naturalized Hong Kong citizenship, father born in Lebanon but not Lebanse, child born in Oman. That perfect set of circumstance meant the child was stateless. Child was later eventually registered British under 3(2). – ouflak Sep 20 '16 at 11:00

2 Answers2

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Statelessness is a kind of negative state (falling through the cracks as it were) so I am not sure a full list can be created but here are some (actual, not merely theoretical) cases:

  • Born to parents who are themselves stateless.
  • Born to an unmarried mother with a citizenship transmitted solely through males (a common problem, there are dozens of those).
  • Born to parents who cannot transmit their citizenship for another reason (e.g. British citizens by descent, under certain conditions, although that can usually be fixed, indeed that's what the form S2 referred on the page you found is about).

Of course, this would only apply if the birth in question happens in a country with strictly no jus soli and no fall-back clause. I don't know precisely how common this is elsewhere but in many European countries, even those that are comparatively restrictive about dual citizenship and jus soli, the law stipulates that someone born to unknown parents or with no other citizenship is a citizen (there are exception, though, like Austria).

The Americas generally have unconditional jus soli so the problem does not arise there at all.

Gala
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    If parents are known and birth is at sea, does it go by the laws of the ship's registration country? – WGroleau Sep 17 '16 at 23:32
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    @WGrolean I don't know and I am not sure I see the link with the question. In most cases, the child would in any case have one or more citizenships by descent. Do you have a special case in mind? – Gala Sep 17 '16 at 23:36
  • No special case. If the parents are from a state which is jus soli and NOT jus sanguinis, if any such exist, and not a signer of the convention on statelessness (there are only 67 of those), then it seems like the child would be stateless, although I had not thought of this situation when I first posed the question. – WGroleau Sep 18 '16 at 00:12
  • @WGroleau Yes, possibly, but that's two very big IFs (parents from a country that knows no transmission of citizenship by descent and being born on a ship). Whatever causes the lack of transmission by descent, it would also create a problem for the (much more common) births in a country with no jus soli. And the cases I mentioned are real and documented, there is no need for any country with strictly no transmission of citizenship for them to happen (the other “theoretical” if). – Gala Sep 18 '16 at 00:50
  • I checked this answer because it covers most situations. But also, if you are born on a ship flagged to a country with jus soli, you may have their citizenship. If you don't have citizenship under one of the conditions mentioned so far, but you are born on the soil for ship of a country that signed the convention on statelessness, then you get their citizenship. So if we list all the countries that DON'T meet any of these conditions, we might have a small list of circumstances for statelessness. Not exactly an answer, but my curiosity is appeased. :-) – WGroleau Sep 18 '16 at 03:15
  • @WGroleau: All countries in the world have some form of jus sanguinis. Some countries have conditions for when jus sanguinis occurs. – user102008 Sep 18 '16 at 04:00
  • Tibetans born in Nepal or India seem to end up stateless, or at least are unable to get a passport from anyone. The ones I know all have non-passport travel documents. – Dennis Sep 18 '16 at 09:35
  • @Dennis Most refugees (and I assume many Tibetans in India are) do, stateless or not (in fact, applying for a passport from your state of origin can lead you to lose your status). That's a slightly different problem. – Gala Sep 18 '16 at 10:09
  • @Gala, If they were born in Nepal or India they apparently have no right to a China passport nor any right to enter China, which are rights one would think a Chinese national would have. If India thinks they are refugees from China rather than Indian, but China thinks they have nothing to do with China, isn't that the definition of statelessness? – Dennis Sep 18 '16 at 10:36
  • @Dennis It depends, conceptually having no right or no effective way to get a passport (the document) is distinct from not being considered a citizen. Refugees are, by definition, persecuted and usually unable to get a passport from their country of origin. But that does not necessarily mean they are not considered citizens. For example, people who fled a war zone or a dictatorship usually do have the right to come back (and face arrest or worse…) even if they have absolutely no reason to and their country's embassy won't usually serve them. – Gala Sep 18 '16 at 10:57
  • Consequently, receiving countries often issue different type of travel documents, some of them indeed for stateless people, some of them stating that the person has a given citizenship but can't use it in practice at the moment because they are refugees. Not all countries that persecute their citizens (or some groups of citizens) go as far as stripping them or their children of their citizenship. It's possible but the fact the people you met had refugees travel document and were unable to get a passport does not necessarily imply that that's the case. – Gala Sep 18 '16 at 10:59
  • Not that it makes a whole of difference in practice, but the inability to get a passport might just result from additional chicanery or the inability to complete some formalities expected from Chinese citizens abroad, rather than an official stance from the Chinese government that these people are not citizens. Being unable to enter China would suggest the latter but I don't know the China/Tibet situation well enough to know which is which. – Gala Sep 18 '16 at 11:03
  • (Incidentally, India could could very well or at least should recognize those children of refugees are stateless if indeed they are. There are such a thing as stateless travel documents. Statelessness does not by definition imply that two or more states disagree on a person's citizenship.) – Gala Sep 18 '16 at 11:06
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An individual is born in a country that does not grant citizenship by virtue of being born there (jus solis) to parents whose birth country/countries don't grant/recognize birthright citizenship.

Giorgio
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  • Which country or countries do not grant birthright citizenship at all, in general? – Gala Sep 17 '16 at 23:24
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli Countries with unrestricted jus solis are those in the Americas: Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Barbados, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Dominica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tanzania, , Trinidad and Tobago, Tufalu, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela – Giorgio Sep 18 '16 at 00:21
  • That's not what this list is about. Countries are currently much more restrictive with jus soli than with jus sanguinis so what's notable is the possibility for children born in the country to non-citizens to get citizenship immediately and unconditionally. That's what set those countries apart. Among those, many (all?) also grant citizenship by descent in at least some cases, like other, non-jus soli countries. – Gala Sep 18 '16 at 00:32
  • @Gala true, but far shorter to list those that do than those with restricted jus solis, those with conditions, and the vast number of countries that don't, right? – Giorgio Sep 18 '16 at 00:38
  • OK but what's your point? It rules out all births in those countries but that still explains nothing, does not answer my earlier question and does not establish either that there is any country whose citizens can never ever transmit their citizenship to their children born abroad (isn't that what you mean by “birthright citizenship”?) or that the situation you describe in your answer actually exists. – Gala Sep 18 '16 at 00:46
  • You can have a look at my answer to understand how births into statelessness actually happen. It's slightly more complicated than “having parents whose birth country/countries don't grant/recognize birthright citizenship”. Typically, when the parent(s) have a citizenship, that country does grant citizenship by descent, just not to that particular child for some reason (citizenship not transmitted through mothers, second generation abroad/insufficient residence in the country of citizenship, etc.). What those reasons and additional conditions are explains how this is possible at all. – Gala Sep 18 '16 at 00:48