Armed Forces: Recruitment

(asked on 5th September 2023) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the (a) Army, (b) Royal Navy and (c) RAF accept applications from people with dual nationality to join as (i) a commissioned officer and (ii) another rank.


Answered by
Andrew Murrison Portrait
Andrew Murrison
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
This question was answered on 13th September 2023

To be eligible to apply to join the UK Armed Forces an individual must be British (British Citizen, British Overseas Citizen, British Overseas Territory Citizen, British National (Overseas) Citizen, British Protected Person or British Subject), Irish or a Commonwealth Citizen. This can be as a sole or dual national. The British Army is also home to the Brigade of Gurkhas who are from Nepal.

Data is not held in the format required to state how many applications from dual nationals have been rejected in each year since 2010. Applications are looked at on a case-by-case basis in relation to the requirements of the Service, rank and role for which someone has applied, and can be rejected for several reasons. Those who apply who do hold one or more permitted nationalities will be accepted if they meet all the other recruitment criteria applicable to the Service, rank and role they are applying. Dual nationals might, like sole nationals, be rejected if they do not have the required UK residency for vetting purposes. This also varies depending on the Service, role and rank applied for.

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