was removed on 1 January 1977. Preferences afforded to Commonwealth citizens were abolished in 1989; the residence requirement for naturalisation was reduced to five years and Commonwealth citizens have since been treated the same as other foreign citizens. Commonwealth and Irish citizens remain technically defined in Maltese law as non-foreign, but there are no benefits provided to either group. The UK itself updated its nationality law to reflect the more modest boundaries of its remaining territory and possessions with the British Nationality Act 1981, which redefined British subject to no longer also mean Commonwealth citizen. Maltese citizens remain Commonwealth citizens in British law and continue to be eligible to vote and stand for public office in the UK. Expanded citizenship access for Maltese diaspora Following a general trend of change in citizenship law globally, reforms in 1989 shifted the basis for acquiring Maltese citizenship from a doctrine of birthright to that of descent. Unrestricted birthright citizenship was ended in that year and children born in the country since 1 August 1989 are only granted citizenship by birth if at least one parent is a citizen or was also born in Malta. Gender imbalances were removed from legislation as well; citizenship became transferrable by descent to children through mothers as well as fathers and foreign husbands of Maltese women became eligible for citizenship by registration. Maltese-born persons became permitted to hold dual citizenship in limited circumstances. Although Maltese citizens who naturalised as foreign citizens continued to automatically lose their Maltese citizenship, former citizens who were born in Malta and who had been resident in the country of their new citizenship for at least six years could reacquire Maltese citizenship and be considered to have never lost that status. Consequently, children born before 1989 to a formerly Maltese father who subsequently reacquired Maltese citizenship under this provision also became Maltese citizens, backdated to the dates of their birth. All restrictions on holding multiple citizenships were lifted in 2000; Maltese citizens no longer lose their citizenship when acquiring foreign nationalities, and naturalisation applicants are no longer required to renounce their previous citizenships. Maltese emigrants who fulfilled the previous six-year residence period in a foreign country automatically regained their Maltese citizenship and were considered to have never lost that status under this amendment, while those did not meet this condition could only regain citizenship by registration. Non-citizen spouses of Maltese citizens became subject in