Luma

JAJ is correct. If you don't ask for permission they will take away your South African citzenship. It happened to a friend of mine.

Loss of South African Citizenship (Section 6)
A South African citizen who by a formal and voluntary act acquires the citizenship of another country, automatically loses his or her South African citizenship.
http://home-affairs.pwv.gov.za/sa_citizenship.asp

jce

i did say that you need to ask permission to retain your SA citizenship/passport by filling in a short form and paying the fee;

"Retention of South African citizenship may, however, be applied for, but must be done and be approved before acquisition of the other citizenship to prevent automatic loss of the South African citizenship. Applications must be on form BI 1664 and are subject to payment of a prescribed fee of R115-00. Applications may be lodged at any Home Affairs domestic office or if abroad, at the nearest South African Embassy or Mission. "

The letter you get in return has to be kept with your passport although this requirement seems to have been removed in 2004;

"In essence, the act repealed the provision which allowed the Minister of Home Affairs to deprive a citizen of his or her citizenship for having used the citizenship of a foreign country. Consequently, the previous requirement for exemptions or letters of permission from the Minister to make use of a foreign passport has now been terminated. The issue of deprivation of citizenship was inconsistent with the Constitutional right to citizenship. "

Maybe i just filled in the right forms and did the beaucracy properly?

The key element of that act was twofold - to reduce the number of SA citizens that had moved abroad, with no intention of returning, and were voting, and to reduce the number of people entering the country on the passport of another country when they were SA citizens - something to do with moving money i think. When you enter SA and hold SA citizenship then you have to use your SA passport - seems sensible to me;

"Essentially, the Amendment Act provides that a South African citizen, who has dual citizenship or nationality, can freely use his or her foreign passport outside South Africa. However, they must use their South African passport to depart from or enter South Africa."

Kitten24

Thank you for your replies.

My husband and his entire family are dual citizens, some of them applied to be and others didn't have to due to the law changes. (You used to have to apply for it) My Husband didn't apply to be a dual citizen and he was told that according to the new laws he just needs to use his SA passport when leaving SA or returning and his British passport for leaving or returning to the UK.

Kitten24

We've been in the UK for 6 years now. We were looking at Perth.

Kitten24

I don't think it was necessary of you to be rude to me. If you must know I didn't apply because I needed my passport to travel back and forth to SA. My father has a collapsed kidney and the other one is failing, so I needed to be free to travel at the drop of a hat.

Daydreamer123

We are a long way from losing our saffa status if we do this big move to Oz and are still trying to wade through all the paperwork. Any saffa's who live in the UK, how easy was it to get police checks etc????

I remember how difficult it is to get anything done when you live there, so shudder to think how much worse trying to do it from somewhere else!!!!!

BadgeIsBack

Are you thinking of whom I'm thinking!

JAJ

There is no need to submit your passport when applying for naturalisation. The Home Office have always accepted copies (of the whole passport) certified by a solicitor or JP. This is different to the Immigration Rules.

Or you could use the Nationality Checking Service and apply in person. (if you local council does not participate you can always travel to one that does).
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/app...ationality/ncs

Kitten24

Thank you for your advice.

johnnyyt

I was born in Durban to UK parents but have lived in UK just about all my life and I have never had a SA passport but I have Police checks every year for my job as an approved contractor for the Political party conferences, no problems.
Still don't know if I should get a 'confirmation of SA citezenship and a SA passport before an Aussie one though.
Johnnyyt

JAJ

Do you want to keep your South African citizenship or not? The answer should guide you.