Building a New Scotland: citizenship in an independent Scotland

Choosing to become a Scottish citizen

This chapter describes the Scottish Government's proposals on how to become a citizen after independence, providing a pathway through the immigration system into settlement and citizenship. As with all these proposals, the law around naturalisation as a citizen would be for the future Scottish Parliament to determine.

The Scottish Government's priority for citizenship and migration policy is to encourage people to live and work permanently in Scotland. This will help Scotland to maintain its vibrant society, address demographic challenges, support communities up and down the country and contribute to a fairer, greener economy and to our public services.

The pathways to citizenship that would be in place that were not transitional after independence would therefore be linked to residence in Scotland. A person would generally have to be settled in Scotland, for the purposes of Scottish immigration and nationality law, to become a Scottish citizen. This would ensure that people who choose to become Scottish citizens are also committed to contributing to social, cultural and economic life in Scotland. Residency in Scotland also comes with obligations, for example, Scotland would continue to operate an income tax system based primarily on residency.

Some people would be able to register as a Scottish citizen after independence. They would gain a right to be a Scottish citizen after living here for at least five years.

Everyone else who wanted to become a Scottish citizen but was not a citizen automatically and was not eligible to register as a citizen, would be able to apply. This process of applying to become a citizen of another country is often called "naturalisation" in nationality law.

Registration as a Scottish citizen

Two groups of people would be able to register as a Scottish citizen after independence:

• British and Irish citizens living in Scotland
• Children of any nationality living in Scotland who have been brought up here

Anyone else who wants to become a Scottish citizen after independence would apply to naturalise as a citizen.

British and Irish citizens would be able to register as a citizen after five years of residence in Scotland. They would be automatically considered settled in Scotland for immigration and nationality purposes, as they would not be subject to immigration control as part of CTA arrangements. They would not need to be a Scottish citizen to enjoy their reciprocal rights in Scotland as part of the CTA.

A child born in Scotland who is not automatically eligible for Scottish citizenship would be able to register as a Scottish citizen after five years' continuous residence in Scotland, or sooner if either of their parents became a Scottish citizen before that time.

A person who was not born in Scotland but moved here as a child would be able to register as a Scottish citizen after five years' continuous residence in Scotland.

Children and young adults able to register in this way would need to be living in Scotland at the time they registered, and do so before they were 23. (The age cut off of 23 for children and young adults wanting to register relates to the age of becoming an adult (18), plus the requirement for five years residency.) If they are older, and eligible, they would be able to apply to naturalise instead.

Naturalisation as a Scottish citizen

People resident in Scotland who are not British citizens would not automatically become Scottish citizens at the point of independence. Migrants in Scotland lawfully would be able to apply for naturalisation as a Scottish citizen.

Naturalisation as a citizen would become available after five years of lawful residence in Scotland in most cases, and at least one year as a settled person free of immigration control. These may run concurrently, depending on how and when an individual becomes eligible for settlement.

As a result, the route to naturalisation as a Scottish citizen would be slightly different for:

• EU citizens with settled status
• EU citizens once Scotland had rejoined the EU
• People already settled under UK immigration law ("indefinite leave to remain")
• People who would need a visa to come to Scotland
• Asylum seekers and refugees

EU citizens and their family members with settled status derived from the EUSS are considered settled in Scotland and would be able to naturalise as Scottish citizens as soon as they met the residence requirement. They would not need to become a Scottish citizen to enjoy their protected rights under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, which Scotland would fully respect as an independent country.

Once Scotland rejoined the EU, EU citizens would automatically be considered settled ("permanent residents" in EU law terms) after five years of exercising free movement rights.

People living in Scotland who previously had "indefinite leave to remain" in the UK would become settled in Scotland under Scottish immigration law and could then apply to naturalise as a citizen when they met the residence requirement.

For people who would require a visa to live and work in Scotland, the terms of their visa would state whether it offered a pathway to settlement. Most long-term visa routes would offer a pathway to settlement, typically after five years' residence.

People who arrived in Scotland under asylum, resettlement or other humanitarian protection routes would be considered settled when the assessment of their status was approved. There would be no charge for settlement applications for refugees or people with humanitarian protection, or for their spouse, partner or children.

Therefore:

• for EU citizens with settled status and people who arrived in Scotland on a humanitarian route, naturalisation could take place after five years of living in Scotland. This is similar to British and Irish citizens, who would be able to register, rather than apply, after five years' residence in Scotland
• for EU citizens under free movement in the future, and the majority of people living in Scotland with a visa allowing settlement, naturalisation could take place after six years of living in Scotland – five years' residence followed by a minimum period of 12 months settlement

Settlement would also be offered to anyone who has resided lawfully in Scotland for at least ten years, in the event they have not been able to pursue a path to settlement before that point. This would allow them to apply to naturalise as a Scottish citizen in due course if they chose.

People who are not settled in Scotland would not be able to apply to naturalise as a citizen. However, a route would be created in the immigration system for nationals of other countries who have an enduring connection to Scotland to return here to live and work. This new visa category would offer a pathway to settlement and naturalisation as a Scottish citizen after the qualifying period of residence in Scotland. It will be described in more detail in the Building a New Scotland proposals on migration, but would include people of any nationality:

• who have previously lived lawfully in Scotland for at least five years, or
• who have a parent or grandparent who is or would automatically have been a Scottish citizen

Renunciation and loss of citizenship

Scottish citizens would have the right to renounce their citizenship, provided doing so would not leave them stateless.^[79] There would be no barriers to holding multiple nationalities in Scottish law, but some countries do not permit their citizens to hold multiple nationalities or place limits on doing so. If a Scottish citizen were to naturalise as a citizen of such a country, they could be required to renounce their previous citizenship.

Otherwise, a Scottish citizen could lose their citizenship not by their choice only if the very highest legal and constitutional tests had been met, where that was a proportionate response in the circumstances, and where doing so would not leave them stateless. Loss of citizenship in this way could only occur in the most egregious instances, such as where a person had obtained that citizenship through serious and intentional fraud.