Malaysian BOCs continued their applications after this change in immigration policy and renounced their Malaysian citizenship after being given incorrect legal advice. Due to differences in how the governments recognise nationality renunciation, both the British and Malaysian governments consider this group of individuals nationals of the other country and refuse to give them any form of permanent status. Debate over ultimate responsibility for this group of BOCs (estimated to be 1,000–2,000 people) continues while they remain stateless without a territory that they have a guaranteed right to remain in. Acquisition and loss Becoming a British Overseas citizen is generally not possible. The status cannot be acquired by naturalisation and can only be transferred by descent if an individual born to a BOC parent would otherwise be stateless. It is expected that BOCs will obtain citizenship in the country they reside in and that the number of active status holders will eventually dwindle until there are none. Almost all individuals with this status obtained it in 1983, when Citizens of the United Kingdom and Colonies without right of abode in the United Kingdom were reclassified as British Overseas citizens. Due to the broad nature of the governing Acts that determine CUKC and BOC eligibility, there are a variety of circumstances in which an individual could have acquired BOC status. These include: CUKCs connected with a former colony or protectorate who did not acquire that country's citizenship on independence (applicable particularly to some former colonies, such as Kenya and Aden); connection in this context generally means having acquired CUKC status by birth or naturalisation in a qualified territory, or by birth to a father or grandfather who fulfilled those requirements persons who became citizens of a newly independent country, but remained CUKCs (applicable to the former Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca, as well as Cyprus) persons who became citizens of a newly independent country, but remained CUKCs based on a connection to another colony which subsequently became independent before 1983 BDTCs connected with Hong Kong who failed to register for British National (Overseas) status and would otherwise have been stateless after the transfer of sovereignty to China on 1 July 1997 British subjects connected with Burma who made declarations to retain that status after independence in 1948 women who acquired CUKC by marriage on or after 28 October 1971 minor children who acquired CUKC by registration at the British high commission