Guidance

British overseas territories citizens

Guidance about the British overseas territories citizen (BOTC) nationality status and how to deal with BOTC passport applications.

From:: HM Passport Office
Published: 2 November 2021
Last updated: 23 September 2022 — See all updates

Documents

British overseas territories citizens (accessible version)

HTML

British overseas territories citizens

PDF, 337 KB, 26 pages

Details

This tells HM Passport Office operational staff how to deal with applications sent directly to us, from customers who hold British overseas territories citizenship (BOTC).

Published 2 November 2021
Last updated 23 September 2022 + show all updates

23 September 2022
Accessible version added.
2 November 2021
First published.

Update history

2026-03-24 17:02
Updated the guidance to include registrations under section 17(5) of the British Nationality Act 1981, reorganise registration sections introduced by the Nationality and Borders Act 2022, and clarify when the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 came into force.

2026-01-20 16:19
Updated the guidance to version 26.0, a full list of the changes can be found in the guide.

2025-09-15 09:07
Updated guidance – a list of changes can be found in the ‘Changes from last version of this guidance’ section within the guidance.

2025-02-19 10:37
The guidance has been updated to tell examiners what to do if the customer is applying for their first British citizen passport (rather than renewing their British overseas territories citizenship passport).

2022-11-04 15:49
This document has had considerable updates and has been replaced.

2022-09-23 13:07
Accessible version added.