naturalized persons for the application of Article 7(4). The same applies for all persons who acquired nationality by operation of law or upon submission of an application which the authorities had no discretion to refuse. 48. There was a consensus that loss of nationality under Article 7(3) will generally not be permissible if the individual concerned is left stateless. Increasing international migration means that the character of the bond between the individual and the State has considerably evolved and often involves only sporadic contact with the authorities and visits to the country of nationality. As a result, the objective of ensuring strong links between the individual and the State is less relevant than at the time of drafting of the 1961 Convention. Consequently, such provisions have become increasingly rare in nationality laws. In most cases, loss of nationality resulting in statelessness will not meet the proportionality test because the impact on the individual far outweighs the objective sought by the State. States can achieve their policy objective of preserving strong links to their nationals by providing for loss of nationality in such situations only where the individuals concerned would not be left stateless. 49. Participants noted the difficulties faced by individuals in complying with the type of requirements for retention set out in paragraphs (4) and (5) of Article 7 (declaration, registration or residence). They noted that if States retain such provisions, they need to take all possible steps to ensure that the persons concerned are informed individually and in a timely manner of the formalities and time limits to be observed to retain their nationality, as recommended under the Final Act of the 1961 Convention. 50. If States retain provisions whereby nationality is lost by naturalized citizens on the basis of continuous residence abroad without registration with the authorities, renewal of a passport is to be considered as registration. It is desirable to impose a time limit for loss which is considerably longer than the validity of national passports. With the increasing use of machine readable passports, this will often be ten years. 51. Given the consequences for the individual, it was recommended that any State that seeks to retain this exception not provide for automatic loss of nationality in these cases, but for the possibility of deprivation of nationality. This would enable the authorities to take all relevant circumstances into account when making the deprivation decision, such as the strength of ties between the person and the State concerned. Deprivation of Nationality: Analysis of Articles 8 and 9 of the 1961 Convention Article 8: deprivation of nationality Basic rule: Article 8(1) – No deprivation of nationality if it results in statelessness 52. Article 8(1) of the 1961 Convention sets out the basic rule that a Contracting State shall not deprive a person of his or her nationality if such deprivation renders him or her stateless. 53. Paragraphs (2) and (3) of Article 8 set out an exhaustive list of exceptions to this basic rule. While States may provide for deprivation of nationality on grounds other than those 11