Naturalisation in Sierra Leone: 8 or 15 Years, the Oath and Dual Citizenship

Before the 2025 announcement, the only way for a foreigner to become a citizen of Sierra Leone was ordinary naturalisation. It still is the only route with published rules, so I start every file by reading the law. I checked the 1973 Act and the Amendment Act 2006 on 27 October 2026.

The residence periods

Applicant	Continuous residence	Where
Either parent of negro African descent	8 years	1973 Act, section 8
Neither parent of such descent	15 years	1973 Act, section 8

In both cases the applicant must be of full age and capacity. For the 15-year route the Act also requires the Minister to be satisfied under the Third Schedule. The 2006 amendments added a definition: a person of negro African descent is one whose mother or father, and any grandparent of that parent, was a Negro of African descent.

The conditions of section 9

The 2006 Act rewrote section 9. The applicant must:

• be of full age and capacity;
• take the oath of allegiance;
• make a declaration of residence and employment that satisfies the Minister;
• pay the prescribed fees.

The original 1973 text also required renunciation of any other citizenship. That requirement went with the 2006 changes.

Dual citizenship

The old section 10 banned dual citizenship. The 2006 Act replaced it with a rule allowing a citizen of Sierra Leone to hold another citizenship. The question you still have to answer is whether your own country allows it. BRIDGES shows a case of a Russian client who kept his citizenship after checking both sides.

What a naturalised citizen cannot do

The 1973 Act keeps certain posts for citizens by birth: President, Member of Parliament, ambassador or high commissioner, Permanent Secretary and posts in the armed forces and the police. Parliament can lift this restriction for a person by a two-thirds majority once 25 years have passed. For most investors this changes nothing, but it shows that naturalisation does not create an equal status in every respect.

Losing and resuming citizenship

Deprivation

Under the amended section 16 the Minister may deprive a naturalised citizen of citizenship by order if it is in the public interest.

Appeals and resumption

The 2006 Act created an appeal committee chaired by a judge (section 22A) and a procedure to resume citizenship that was lost (section 19A).

Two things I could not confirm

The 2006 Act says it comes into force on a date fixed by the Minister by order. I did not find the text of that order. I also saw references to a section 27A and a 2026 regulation for investors in secondary sources, but not the texts themselves. Section 27 of the 1973 Act lets the President make regulations, so a regulation is possible, but I do not rely on one I have not read. The investor figures are in the cost guide.