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Between 1947 and 1949
Because Canada was the first British Dominion with its own nationality and citizenship law, Canadian citizens between 1 January 1947 and 31 December 1948 were in a rare position that they were considered to be nationals of both Canada and the United Kingdom under both countries' laws.

This unique period was because of a legal vacuum caused by the United Kingdom, which at that time had only drafted its own citizenship law, the British Nationality Act 1948. The British 1948 Act would confer Citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies exclusively to persons connected to the United Kingdom and British colonies, while substantially redefining the term "British subject" as a symbolic status similar to today's Commonwealth citizenship. However, the British 1948 Act did not replace its 1914 Act until 1 January 1949, and the British 1914 Act continued to confer British subject status, a status that was interpreted as a powerful equivalent to British nationality, on all persons born or naturalized in Canada. Hence, during this period, a Canadian citizen would be a Canadian citizen under Canadian law while also being a British subject under the British law; while a British subject domiciled elsewhere with no connection to Canada would only be a British subject under British law.

This confusion ended when the British 1949 Act went into effect and specified Canadian citizens as solely "

Prior to 1949, inhabitants of all parts of the British Empire held the same national status of British subject. From 1949, British subjects with a connection to the United Kingdom or one of the remaining British colonies were designated citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies (CUKCs) as their national citizenship status when independent British dominions subsequently created their own national citizenship. Independence of British colonies in the following decades caused the UK to withdraw CUKC status from those who became citizens of those newly independent states. Moreover, changes to British immigration law in 1962, 1968 and 1971 saw the gradual erosion, and the eventual disappearance, of UK residency rights enjoyed by CUKCs without a connection to the UK (i.e., not Born in the UK, and not having a parent or grandparent born in the UK).

With the creation of a separate nationality status known as the British Dependent Territories citizenship (BDTC) in 1981, residents of the remaining overseas territories were formally refused full citizenship rights including the right of abode in the UK, which, at that time, was only held by those with a connection to the UK. This was mainly to prevent a mass exodus of residents of Hong Kong to the UK before the agreed handover to China in 1997. The only exceptions were made for the Falkland Islands, which had been invaded in 1982 by Argentina and hence its residents were granted British citizenship, and Gibraltar, which was a member of the European Community in its own right.

However, the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 replaced British Dependent Territory citizenship with British Overseas Territories citizenship (BOTC), and restored full British citizenship to all BOTCs except those from Akrotiri and Dhekelia. This restored to BOTCs the right to reside in the UK.

British citizens, however, do not have an automatic right to reside in any of the Overseas Territories. Some territories prohibit immigration, and any visitors are required to seek the permission of the territory's government to live in the territory.