India’s Citizenship Act from 1955 has until recently been interpreted in such a way that any Indians gaining another citizenship had to renounce their Indian nationality and surrender their passport, with their children automatically losing Indian citizenship too.
Now, a new Office Memorandum from the Ministry of External Affairs has clarified how the act should be interpreted.
Firstly, Indians no longer need to renounce their citizenship once they have gained citizenship of another country – the process happens automatically.
“As prescribed u/s 8(1) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 Any ‘Citizen of India’ of full age and capacity can renounce Indian citizenship,” reads the memorandum.
“Accordingly, those foreign nationals of Indian Origin who have already acquired citizenship of any other country are not eligible to renounce their citizenship. In fact, their citizenship has already been terminated… by acquiring citizenship of other country,” it continues.
It goes on to list a set of circumstances in which the Indian citizenship of a minor is not affected by their parent becoming a citizen of another country, such as when one parent renounces Indian citizenship before the child is born (with the other remaining an Indian citizen), or in the case of a child born to one Indian parent and one foreign parent who has never held Indian citizenship.
It also clarifies that children’s citizenship should not be affected if their parents voluntarily acquire citizenship of another country and cease to be Indian citizens, writing that the act “does not have any provision of termination of citizenship of minors of such persons”.
In situations where one parent gives up Indian citizenship and the other keeps it, the child should not be affected, unless the parent with foreign citizenship gains full legal custody of the child. In that case, the child’s citizenship “shall be of that parent who has the legal custody of that minor child”.
Even in this case, however, the child may still be able to retain Indian citizenship.
The High Court of Bombay in Goa ruled in August that an Indian 16-year-old, the child of a mother with sole custody who gave up her Indian citizenship for Portuguese citizenship in 2015, should be allowed to retain her Indian citizenship. It wrote, in court documents seen by The Local, that the teenager is still an Indian citizen and “cannot be left stateless”.
The memorandum from the Chief Passport Officer at the Ministry of External Affairs, which was written after discussion with the Ministry of Home Affairs, also recommends that instructions for foreign citizens to surrender their Indian passport or renounce their citizenship be removed from official websites, as this is understood to happen automatically once they gain citizenship of another country.
When The Local checked the website of the Indian Embassy in Sweden, it had updated advice on renunciations, removing a section which previously stated that “every minor child” of someone renouncing their citizenship “ceases to be a citizen of India”, as well as a section stating that all Indian nationals who have gained Swedish citizenship must apply to renounce their citizenship and surrender their passport.
It has also added a section stating that Indians lose citizenship “with immediate effect” once they are issued with a passport or naturalisation certificate of another country, and are no longer eligible to apply to renounce their citizenship, as well as clarifying that a renunciation certificate is no longer required for any Indians applying for an OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) card.
Note: After publishing this article, a reader got in touch to say that the Indian Embassy in Sweden still maintains that Indian children lose citizenship when their parents become Swedish citizens, despite removing these sections from its website. The Local has contacted India’s Chief Passport Officer, the author of the Office Memorandum mentioned above, for clarification on this issue.
So how can one apply for OCI card? Does it will automatically happen?
No, you’ll still need to apply for an OCI card, you just don’t need to show proof that you’ve renounced your Indian citizenship when you do so – it’s enough to show that you have Swedish citizenship. There’s more information on the Indian Embassy’s website, although I’d recommend reaching out to them first to double check exactly which documents you need: https://www.indembassysweden.gov.in/page/oci-cards/
Thanks to the team at Local for following up on this story and researching the facts that provide clarity. So relieved to see this. Great work!
I recently spoke to Migrationsverket about this issue of Indian children becoming stateless if parents were to apply for Swedish citizenship in this case. They mentioned that for Indian parents applying for Swedish citizenship, they can apply with the minor child as applicant in the same citizenship application. This has been recently changed in the Migrationsverket guidelines is what I was told but good to confirm that.
Thank you ’The Local’ for following up on this story so dilligently and bringing it to a conclusion.
Thank you ’The Local’ for following up on this story so dilligently and bringing it to a conclusion.
Is it possible for you to share the link of this memorandum? I live in the Netherlands and I am going through the same challenge. Your article is gives some hope.
Sure, I’ll send you an email with the details.
Thx Local for reporting this. could you also help me to share memorandum link ? I can still see in indiancitizenshiponline.nic.in portal still flashing message like ” every minor child of that person shall cease to be a citizen of india under sub – section(2) of section 8 of the citizenship act , 1955″
Sure, have sent you an email with more details!