MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Reminder of the Falkland Islands Status Amendments 2022

The amendments included in Falkland Islands Status (Amendment) Bill 2022 will come into force in on Wednesday 1 March 2023

In September 2022 the elected Legislative Assembly approved amendments to the Falkland Islands Status Ordinance 1998. The amended Ordinance narrows the definition of a “qualified person” (which at the moment includes a Commonwealth citizen), limiting the definition to include a British citizen, a British Overseas Territory citizen or a British Overseas citizen.

In addition, a person coming within one of those citizen groups will now have to hold a permanent residence permit in order to come under the definition of “qualified person”.

The requirement for the applicant to have been ordinarily resident in the Falkland Islands for the seven years immediately prior to their application remains, but there are amendments to the allowed absences in that period.

The new allowed absences will be no more than 630 days aggregate in the seven-year period, no more than 90 days aggregate in any one of those 7 years, and the applicant must have been physically present in the Falkland Islands for the whole of the first 180 days of the first of the seven years.

The amendments included in Falkland Islands Status (Amendment) Bill 2022 will come into force in on Wednesday 1 March 2023 in order to allow those who have reached the 7-year residency point, but have not yet applied for Falkland Islands status, time to apply before the amendments come in to force.

Those who qualify under the current Ordinance (Commonwealth citizen/do not hold PRP) and wish to apply for Falkland Islands status are encouraged to apply before the amendments come into force on Wednesday 1 March this year.