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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Lisa O’Carroll

‘Illegitimacy tax’: new UK border rules for dual nationals throwing lives into chaos

Passengers using the ePassport gates at UK border control, Stansted Airport.
‘Because my parents were unmarried in 1999, I am legally treated as illegitimate.’ Photograph: Alex Segre/Alamy

Two women who have lived almost all their lives in the UK have had their lives thrown into chaos due to the new border control rules for British dual nationals because their French mothers were not married to their British fathers.

Both women have been forced to prove their right to British passports as a result of archaic laws, which did not accord automatic citizenship to the children of unmarried British fathers in dual national relationships until the law was changed in 2005.

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