🇿🇦 Keeping your South African citizenship when you take another

For almost 30 years, South Africans who took another country's citizenship risked losing their South African citizenship automatically, often without knowing it. That changed in May 2025, when the Constitutional Court struck down the rule. This guide explains what the old rule was, what the judgment means for you (including if you were told you had already lost your citizenship), what your new country's rules might say, and how to handle passports and children born abroad.

The old rule: section 6(1)(a) and retention permits

Section 6(1)(a) of the South African Citizenship Act 88 of 1995 said that an adult South African who voluntarily acquired another nationality, other than by marriage, lost their South African citizenship automatically, unless they had first applied for and received the Minister of Home Affairs' permission to keep it. In practice this meant applying for a letter of retention (often called a retention permit) under section 6(2) before taking the oath in your new country.

Many people never heard of the requirement, applied too late, or naturalised while their retention application was still sitting in a queue. They only found out when a mission refused to renew their South African passport, sometimes decades later.

The 2025 Constitutional Court ruling

The Democratic Alliance challenged the provision. In 2023 the Supreme Court of Appeal declared it unconstitutional, and on 6 May 2025 the Constitutional Court confirmed that order in Democratic Alliance v Minister of Home Affairs and Another [2025] ZACC 08 (case CCT 184/23). The Court ordered that:

• section 6(1)(a) is inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid from its promulgation on 6 October 1995; and
• citizens who lost their citizenship by operation of section 6(1)(a) are deemed not to have lost it.

Because the invalidity is backdated to 1995, the law treats affected people as if they had never stopped being South African. You can read the judgment on the Constitutional Court website.

Home Affairs has since confirmed that South Africans may acquire another citizenship without applying for a retention letter. At the time of writing (October 2026), the High Commission in London states that retention applications are no longer needed and that any submitted won't be processed or refunded (SA High Commission, London: Home Affairs services).

The judgment only dealt with section 6(1)(a). Other parts of the Citizenship Act, including voluntary renunciation, still apply, and Parliament could in future change the law, provided it does so constitutionally. Check the position again before you naturalise if you're reading this some time after the date above.

If you were told you had lost your citizenship

How you proceed depends on when and how you lost it:

• Lost under section 6(1)(a) on or after 6 October 1995: you are deemed never to have lost citizenship, but Home Affairs' records may still show you as a former citizen. Home Affairs has launched a Citizenship Reinstatement Portal at myhomeaffairsonline.dha.gov.za where you can verify your status or start reinstatement. The London High Commission says to allow up to 10 weeks for a response, then print the outcome and use it to apply for a new passport.
• Lost before 6 October 1995 (under the previous Citizenship Act): the judgment doesn't cover you directly. Home Affairs handles these cases through a separate reinstatement or resumption application, which missions generally process by post. Ask your mission for the right form.
• Voluntarily renounced: the ruling doesn't apply. If you formally renounced South African citizenship, you'd need to apply to resume it.

Keep copies of your old South African passport, ID, birth certificate and naturalisation certificate. They are the quickest way to prove your history.

Does your new country allow dual citizenship?

South African law no longer stops you holding two passports, but the other country's law matters too. Some countries make you give up your existing nationality when you naturalise.

• Generally allow dual citizenship: the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Portugal.
• Germany: since the new nationality law took effect on 27 June 2024, people naturalising as German generally no longer have to give up their previous citizenship.
• Netherlands: the Netherlands normally requires you to renounce your existing nationality when you naturalise. There are exceptions, the best known being if you are married to, or in a registered partnership with, a Dutch citizen. Check the exceptions on the IND's dual nationality page before you apply.
• Singapore: does not allow dual citizenship for adults. New citizens must give up their foreign nationality, so becoming Singaporean means renouncing South African citizenship.
• UAE and the Gulf: citizenship is very rarely granted to foreigners. Since 2021 the UAE can grant citizenship by nomination to selected investors, professionals and other talented people, and those nominees may keep their existing nationality. For almost everyone else, long-term residence visas are the realistic option.

Rules change, so always read the current guidance from your new country's citizenship authority. Our country pages are a good place to start.