The South African Citizenship Act, 1995 (Act 88 of 1995) was amended by the South African Citizenship Amendment Act, 2010 (Act No. 17 of 2010) which came into operation on the 1st January 2013.

Our firm can advise on and assist with the following citizenship applications:

• Naturalisation
• Descent
• Citizenship retention and exemption applications
• Citizenship resumption applications
• Determination of citizenship applications

It is worthy of mentioning that a South African citizen shall cease to be a South African citizen if: Prior to obtaining the citizenship or nationality of another country, or before serving in the armed forces of another country in respect of which a person has citizenship, fails to submit a formal application to the Department of Home Affairs to retain his or her South African citizenship.

The Minister may, if he or she deems fit, grant that person the right to retain their South African citizenship. In amplification of the aforegoing, a person who fails to follow this retention process to obtain Ministerial consent before attaining citizenship or nationality of another country will automatically lose their South African citizenship.