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Guidance

UK ancestry: caseworker guidance

Immigration staff guidance on considering applications from Commonwealth citizens with a grandparent born in the UK.

Updates to this page

From:
UK Visas and Immigration
Published:
11 July 2013
Last updated:
3 August 2026
Show all updates

  1. Update to reflect an amendment in the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (HC 259). A full list of changes can be found in the the guide.

  2. Updated to reflect that all applicants granted entry clearance from 20 May 2026 will receive an eVisa only.

  3. Updated with minor amendments to punctuation and formatting throughout and other minor housekeeping changes.

  4. A full list of changes is in the 'changes from last version of this guidance' section.

  5. Changes have been made to this guidance to reflect updates to the Immigration Rules - a full list of the changes is listed in the guidance.

  6. Updated to: amend the definition of ‘Commonwealth citizen’ in line with a recent change to the Immigration Rules; correct an error in the previous version, which wrongly stated that dependants could qualify for entry clearance if applying to join a person who had already settled on this route or become a British citizen; provide updated information on handling applications from citizens of Cyprus and Malta; include links to equivalent external (GOV.UK) versions of caseworker guidance referred to in this document (where an external version exists); and make other minor housekeeping changes.

  7. This guidance has been updated to reflect the introduction of Appendix UK Ancestry.

  8. This document has been substantially revised, full details of the changes are on page 4 of the pdf.

  9. Updated guidance.

  10. Updated guidance.

  11. First published.

Documents

UK ancestry (accessible)

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UK ancestry

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Details

UK Visas and Immigration guidance on how staff consider applications for entry clearance, permission to stay or settlement on the UK Ancestry route. The guidance must be read in conjunction with Immigration Rules: Appendix UK Ancestry, and any other Rules or guidance referred to in this document.

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