Guidance

Legitimacy and domicile: caseworker guidance

Tells HM Passport Office staff about legitimacy and domicile for customers born before 1 July 2006, where the claim to British nationality is through a father.

• From: Home Office
• Published: 8 April 2022
• Last updated: 12 January 2026
  Show all updates

  1. 12 January 2026

     Updated to explain how we send the customer the domicile questionnaire, make a minor terminology change in relation to DNA testing for British passport applications and remove references to Application Management System (AMS).

  2. 5 February 2025

     This guidance has been updated: to better explain how legitimacy works in British nationality for people born before 1 July 2006 and includes examples to show this; to reflect a change of name for the Guidance team; to explain how we send the customer the domicile questionnaire.

  3. 16 November 2022

     Updated guidance published.

  4. 28 September 2022

     Accessible version added.

  5. 8 April 2022

     First published.

Documents

Legitimacy and domicile (accessible)

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Legitimacy and domicile

PDF, 240 KB, 22 pages

Details

This guidance tells HM Passport Office staff about the laws on legitimacy and advises how to confirm a customer, born before 1 July 2006, is the legitimate child of their father, for nationality purposes.

It also tells staff how to confirm where the customer’s father was domiciled, if needed, to establish a claim to British nationality.