Home Office may take away your British citizenship if they find that you obtained your registration or naturalisation by fraud, giving false information, or concealing facts that would have affected our decision. This is known as deprivation of citizenship.

Reasons for depriving you of citizenship might include if you:

• concealed information that might show you are not of good character, such as convictions overseas;
• obtained indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom by claiming to hold a different nationality;
• obtained citizenship as the spouse of a British citizen, but you were not validly married to that person; or
• used false documents to obtain citizenship, or cheated in the Life in the United Kingdom test.

Home Office may also take away your British citizenship if, in their opinion, it would be in the public interest for them to do so and you would not be made stateless as a result of Home Office removing British citizenship.

If you are deprived of citizenship, you stop being a British citizen on the date that a deprivation order is issued. After that you are no longer able to hold a British passport.

Any rights you may have to live in the United Kingdom may also be lost. In serious cases, you may be removed from the United Kingdom.

If you think someone has obtained citizenship fraudulently

If you think someone has obtained British citizenship by fraud, false representation or concealing material fact, you can refer this to Home Office deprivation team using a referral form which is in Annex A of chapter 55 of the nationality instructions. You will need to explain the reasons why you think Home Office should remove their citizenship and give details of any evidence which proves this.