British Dependent Territories Citizen

The status of British Overseas Territories citizen relates to persons holding British nationality by virtue of a connection with a British Overseas Territory.

The British Nationality Act 1981 came into force on 1 January 1983, and divided Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKCs) into three categories:

There are categories of British national other than these three, but these consist of persons who were not CUKCs before 1983.

The year left between the passing of the British Nationality Act 1981 on 30 October 1981, and its going into force on the 1 January 1983, was intended to allow the local governments of the colonies to lodge complaints, but few colonials were aware of the pending change and the only colony which protested was the Falkland Islands, which was permitted to retain full British Citizenship.

All other colonials not already resident in the UK or the Crown Dependencies lost full British Citizenship, and the rights of abode and work in the UK, when the Act went into force. This caused anger in the affected colonies as the Act, which resulted from the desire to prevent ethnic-Chinese people in Hong Kong with UK and Colonies Citizenship from migrating to the UK prior to the planned 1997 hand-over of the colony to China, was seen as racist, especially as those colonials in affected colonies who possessed a qualifying connection to the UK sufficient to retain either British citizenship or a right to remain (in the UK) notification in their BDTC passports were usually white. The former colonials also objected to being described as dependent, especially in Bermuda, which had been self-reliant virtually since 1612, and largely self-governed since 1620. This resentment was exacerbated when full British citizenship was returned to Gibraltarians, ensuring that those from territories perceived as having negligible non-white populations retained free movement into the UK, with rights of abode and work, as did many of the whites in the remaining coloured colonies. Most non-whites in those remaining territories, by contrast, could only enter the UK as short-term visitors (with a date stamped in their passports by which they must exit) or with difficult-to-obtain entry clearances.

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