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Section 31: Persons prevented from obtaining British citizenship etc

Illegal Migration Act 2023 · 2023 c. 37View on legislation.gov.uk

This provision is repealed
It is retained for historical reference and may not reflect the law currently in force.

REPEALED on 2025-12-02 by Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025.

The text below is the provision as originally enacted. It is historical and may not include amendments made before this status change. View the enacted source.

Sections 32 to 35 (ineligibility for routes to British citizenship, British overseas territories citizenship, British overseas citizenship and status as a British subject) apply in relation to a person who falls within subsection (3), read with the modifications in subsections (4) to (6).

Such a person is referred to in sections 32 to 35 as an “ineligible person”.

A person falls within this subsection if the person has ever met the four conditions in section 2 (conditions relating to removal from the United Kingdom), reading subsection (3) of that section as if it referred to a person entering or arriving in the United Kingdom as mentioned in subsection (2) of that section on or after 7 March 2023.

For the purposes of this section, references to the United Kingdom in section 2 and this section are to be read as if they included references to the Islands and the British overseas territories.

For the purposes of this section as it has effect by virtue of subsection (4) in relation to any of the Islands—

references in section 2 to provisions of the Immigration Act 1971 are to be read as if they included references to the provisions of that Act as extended to that Island under section 36 of that Act, and
terms used in the four conditions in section 2 are to be interpreted in accordance with that Act as extended to that Island under section 36 of that Act.

For the purposes of this section as it has effect by virtue of subsection (4) in relation to any of the British overseas territories—

the references in section 2 to “leave to enter”, “leave to remain”, and “limited leave to enter or remain” are to be construed as references to any status formally granted under the immigration laws in force in that territory which is broadly equivalent to the status in question under the Immigration Act 1971,
the references in section 2 to “deportation order”, “entry clearance” and “electronic travel authorisation” are to be construed as references to any order, clearance or authorisation made or given under the immigration laws in force in that territory which is broadly equivalent to the order, clearance or authorisation in question under that Act, and
the references in section 2 to “entering”, “arriving” or to a document being “valid” are to be construed as references to any concept under the immigration laws in force in that territory which is broadly equivalent to the concept in question under that Act.

In this section, “the Islands” means the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

This section is subject to section 36 (disapplication of sections 32 to 35).

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.