South Africa Dual Citizenship 2025: What the Constitutional Court Ruling Means for UK Applicants

For decades, South Africans who naturalised as citizens of another country — including the United Kingdom — automatically lost their South African citizenship. The rule was encoded in Section 6(1)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act, 1995, and it caught out thousands of people who had moved abroad, acquired a second passport, and then discovered their South African citizenship had lapsed without any formal notice. On 6 May 2025, the Constitutional Court declared that provision unconstitutional. The ruling is the most significant change to South African citizenship law in thirty years, and it directly affects every South African considering the UK Ancestry visa pathway to British citizenship.

What Section 6(1)(a) Said

Under the old law, an adult South African citizen who voluntarily acquired the citizenship of another country automatically ceased to be a South African citizen at the moment of acquisition. There was no application to lodge, no notice to receive. The loss was automatic. The only way to prevent it was to apply for a "Retention of Citizenship" letter from the Department of Home Affairs before naturalising abroad.

For South Africans pursuing the UK Ancestry visa route, this created a genuine dilemma at the end of the pathway. The visa itself takes five years. After five years, you can apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain. After ILR, you can naturalise as a British citizen — which under the old rule would automatically strip your South African citizenship the moment you swore the oath. Many ancestry visa holders either delayed British citizenship to keep their South African passport, or applied for retention in advance through DIRCO (the Department of International Relations and Cooperation), often encountering bureaucratic delays that made the process frustrating.

What the Constitutional Court Decided

The Constitutional Court ruled on 6 May 2025 that Section 6(1)(a) violated the constitutional right to citizenship in South Africa. The court declared the provision invalid and struck it down, with retrospective effect back to 6 October 1995 — the date the Constitution came into force.

The practical meaning of the retrospective effect is significant: South Africans who lost their citizenship under Section 6(1)(a) after 1995 are deemed, in law, never to have lost it. Their South African citizenship is treated as having continued uninterrupted.

The Department of Home Affairs responded by launching a "Citizenship Reinstatement Portal" at myhomeaffairsonline.dha.gov.za, through which affected individuals can verify their citizenship status and have their records updated on the Population Register.

What This Means If You Are Applying for the UK Ancestry Visa

The ruling removes the citizenship dilemma that previously existed at the end of the ancestry visa pathway. If you complete the five-year visa period, obtain ILR, and later naturalise as a British citizen, you will not automatically lose your South African citizenship under the old law. The Constitutional Court ruling means you can hold both.

This is significant for three groups of ancestry visa applicants:

Those who have not yet applied: You can plan your pathway to British citizenship without the anxiety of losing your South African passport. Dual citizenship is now the legal default, not an exception that requires advance paperwork.

Those currently on the ancestry visa: If you are partway through your five years in the UK, the change in law applies to you. When you reach ILR and eventually naturalise, the same protection applies.

Those who already lost citizenship under Section 6: If you naturalised as a British citizen before the ruling and believed you had lost your South African citizenship, the retrospective effect means you may be entitled to reinstatement. The DHA's reinstatement portal is the mechanism for verifying and formalising this.

Does the Retention of Citizenship Application Still Apply?

Yes and no. The Constitutional Court ruling means you no longer need a retention letter to protect your South African citizenship when acquiring another nationality. The automatic loss provision is gone.

However, DIRCO retention applications technically still exist in the regulatory framework. Some immigration practitioners — particularly those who have been in the field for many years — continue to recommend obtaining the retention letter as a belt-and-braces measure, on the basis that the DHA's administrative systems have not fully caught up with the ruling and that border officials working from outdated databases may still flag individuals as having lost citizenship.

The practical risk of this is low for ancestry visa holders who are living in the UK and not relying on their South African passport for immediate travel. For those who regularly travel back to South Africa or who maintain business interests there, confirming your status via the DHA reinstatement portal is a sensible step.

The DIRCO Retention Letter Process (If You Choose to Use It)

For those who want the formal documentation, the DIRCO retention application requires:

• Completion of the prescribed form (available from DIRCO offices and the South African High Commission in London)
• Certified copy of South African birth certificate or identity document
• Proof of the foreign citizenship or application in progress
• Applicable fee

The application is submitted through a South African embassy, high commission, or consulate abroad — or directly to DIRCO in Pretoria if you are still in South Africa. The High Commission in London processes applications for South Africans already resident in the UK. Processing times vary, but the process is straightforward when supporting documents are complete.

How This Affects Your Financial Planning

One practical implication of the dual citizenship ruling involves property and financial planning. South Africans who can hold dual citizenship can maintain their South African financial affairs — bank accounts, property investments, pension funds — without the administrative complications that previously arose when SA citizenship was formally lost. This simplifies the SARS tax residency process and reduces the urgency of moving all assets out of South Africa before naturalising.

It does not change the exchange control rules. The R1 million Single Discretionary Allowance and the R10 million Foreign Capital Allowance remain in place regardless of citizenship status. The AIT PIN requirement for large transfers and post-emigration income also remains. What changes is that holding both citizenships is now the legally protected default, not a special exception.

For a comprehensive breakdown of the full Ancestry visa process — including the document chain, financial planning, and what to expect at each stage — the South Africa → UK Ancestry Visa Guide covers the updated legal position and practical implications of the 2025 ruling in full.

A Note on Timing and Administrative Lag

Legal rulings and administrative reality do not always move at the same speed. The Constitutional Court ruling was handed down in May 2025, and the DHA launched its reinstatement portal in late 2025. However, as of mid-2026, some DHA offices and Home Affairs databases are still being updated. If you encounter an issue — a border officer flagging your status, a bank querying your citizenship record — document the ruling and refer to the myhomeaffairsonline.dha.gov.za portal as the authoritative record. The law is clear; the administrative systems are catching up.

See more United Kingdom guides →