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You can become a British citizen either by birth or you can apply for naturalisation if you are aged 18 or over. To be eligible to become a British national, you need to prove that you have been in the UK on Indefinite Leave to Remain or EU Settled Status for at least three years, and that you have never broken UK law, including immigration breaches.
Once your permanent residence status request is approved, you can live, work and study in the UK permanently, without any immigration restrictions. You will also be able to travel and spend time abroad without the need to worry about losing your status.
To learn more about how to get settled status in the UK, you can get in touch with our team of professional immigration lawyers.
Based on the British Nationality Act, those who wish to apply for Naturalisation must meet the following eligibility requirements:
The “Good Character” requirement
To qualify for British citizenship, you must demonstrate your “good character”. This means that you must not hold any severe nor recent criminal record. The Home Office will also review any criminal offence committed overseas and UK immigration-related issue. On the other hand, the UKVI will take into accounts any contributions that you may have made to society.
Naturalisation is the process by which you can apply for British Citizenship if you were not born in the UK. To be eligible, you must be 18 years old or over and satisfy certain conditions.
You must not have any serious or recent criminal record nor have broken any UK immigration laws during your time in the UK. Most importantly, you must have lived in the UK as a settled person (holding Indefinite Leave to Remain) for at least twelve months.
Those who are married with British citizens, can submit their application for naturalisation after three years of continuous residence as a settled person.
Before you apply for naturalisation, you must also ensure that you meet additional requirements. Your total number of absences from the UK must not exceed a specific time frame, especially during the last year of your qualifying period, when you cannot spend more than 90 days outside the UK. It is also essential to satisfy the English language requirements unless you are exempt.
To apply for British citizenship, you can complete the relevant Home Office naturalisation form. The application process usually takes from three to six months. If your application is approved, you will receive an invitation to attend a Citizenship ceremony to obtain your Certificate of Naturalisation.
According to your circumstances, there are several routes you can follow to register as a British citizen.
When submitting your request to become a British citizen, it is essential to prepare an adequate portfolio of documents to demonstrate that you meet all the residency requirements. This will help the Home Office evaluate your case and speed up your processing time.
The following are the documents that you must send to the Home Office to get British citizenship:
Both ILR (including permanent residence and EU Settled status) and British nationality give you the right to live, work and study in the UK free from immigration controls. However, these are two distinct status.
Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)
You can apply for ILR after five years of continuous residence in the UK. Once you get this status, you will be officially a British settled person, and you will be able to live permanently in the UK, access public funds, be joined by your family and leave and re-enter the country without the need to apply for a visa.
Holding ILR is a mandatory step before you can naturalise in the UK as a citizen. However, it is essential to note that you can lose your ILR status if you live outside the UK for more than two years.
British Citizenship
British nationality will grant you full rights and responsibilities, including the ability to vote in parliamentary and local elections and to obtain a British passport. Most importantly, you will be able to leave the UK for unlimited periods of time without worrying about losing your status.
As a general rule, you can become a British national once you have held Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK for at least 12 months. The same requirement applies to those who hold Indefinite Leave to Enter the UK, and to EU and EEA citizens who have had EU settled status for a specific amount of time.
On the other hand, if you are married to a British citizen, you can apply for Naturalisation immediately after you get Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK.
During the 12-month qualifying period, you cannot spend more than 90 days away from the UK. You may be asked to provide details about any absence that you had made before submitted your request.
If you hold Indefinite Leave to Remain, but you are away from the UK for more than two years, you will lose your status, and you will not qualify to British nationality until you have spent further eligible time in the UK.
If you are an EU citizen holding settled status, you will lose your right to settle in the UK after spending more than five years abroad.
If you wish to reobtain your status, you must submit a new application.
To send your request, you need to complete the application form provided by the UKVI, and submit it along with your supporting documentation.
Your biometric details (photograph and fingerprint scans) need to be collected at your nearest UKVCAS centre.
The Home Office may contact you to let you know if you can provide your information at a local post office.
You can submit your forms and documents either from abroad or from within the UK.
To submit your request, you must complete and file a Form AN, Application for Naturalisation as a British citizen. Each section of the form requires you to provide detailed information about your case to prove your eligibility. This includes your biographical data, proof of residency, details of your employment status and any dependant applying with you.
If you are registering as the spouse of a British national, you must also produce evidence of your relationship.
Do not forget to include details of your two referees, who will need to sign your form to confirm that the information you provided on your form is correct.
Your application needs to be certified by two referees of your choice. Their role is to confirm that the information you have provided on your form is correct. Without your referees’ signatures, your request cannot be valid, and it will be rejected.
Your referees must both have known you for at least three years, and they cannot be related to you or each other. In addition, they must not have had any criminal convictions within the last ten years prior to your application.
One of your referees must be a person of professional standing, such as a doctor, a minister of religion, or a member of a professional body. However, he or she cannot be employed by the UKVI nor be a solicitor or agent representing you on this case. It is not essential for this person to be a British citizen. Nevertheless, your other referee must be a UK national and hold a British passport. This person must either be at least 25 years old or an accredited professional.
The Home Office will start processing your case only once you have paid your appropriate fee.
As a general rule, British nationality applications are decided by the UKVI within six months.
Although it is not possible to apply for the Premium Same Day Service to speed up this type of applications, you may receive your answer from the Home Office earlier than the expected waiting time. While complex cases are likely to take more than the average six-month period if you provide comprehensive and adequate documentation about your circumstances the Home Office will be able to review your case quicker. If you fail to submit all the required documents and evidence, your request will most likely be delayed.
Once your application is approved, you will need to wait until you are summoned for your Citizenship Ceremony to receive your Naturalisation certificate and to apply for a British passport.
Also known as the British Citizenship Test, this exam consists of 24 questions about British culture, histories and customs, which all British citizens must know. All the questions are based mainly on the information included in the Life in the UK Handbook provided by the Home Office. The minimum mark required to pass this test is 75%, and the exam is mandatory for those who wish to settle in the UK.
If you have already lived in the UK and obtained a pass certificate as a part of your Indefinite Leave to Remain eligibility requirements, you will be exempt from this British nationality requirements. The same applies to those who are aged between 18 and 65 or who suffer from a long-term illness or disability.
You can book your test online. This must be done at least three days in advance, and you can only choose one of the five centres closest to where you live.
On the day of your exam, you must bring with you the same ID that you used to book the test, as well as any proof of your address. If you fail to provide the correct documentation, you will not be able to sit the test, and you will not get a refund.
If you pass the test, you will receive a notification letter that you have to send to the UKVI together with your permanent residence form. Otherwise, if you fail the test, you will be able to retake it as many times as you need to.
Before you can be a British citizen, you need to prove your knowledge of the English language.
To be eligible, you must have a recognised English test qualification at least at B1 level from an approved test centre. The only credentials accepted by the UKVI are the ones certified by ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). In other words, different qualifications such as GCSEs and NVQs (National Vocational Qualifications) are not valid to meet this requirement.
It must be highlighted that some test qualifications only last for 2 years. The Home Office will admit an expired certificate only if it was accepted for another UK immigration application or when you settled on ILR, permanent residence status or under EU Settled Status.
English Language requirement exemptions
You do not need to sit an English test if you:
If you studied abroad, you would need to provide an Academic Qualification Level Statement (AQUALS) to certify that your degree is equivalent to a UK qualification and that it was taught in English.
Under the British Nationality Act, all applicants over the age of 18 who are accepted as naturalised British citizens in the UK are required to take part in a Citizenship ceremony. The aim is to make each new British citizen fully welcomed into the British community.
Ceremonies must be booked within 3 months of the date you received an invitation from the Home Office. Although you can bring one guest to your service, these functions are not open to the public and are usually attended by the Mayor or Deputy Mayor of your council.
When attending your ceremony, you must bring with you both your Home Office letter of invitation and written confirmation from the Register Office. You will be asked to take an Oath of Allegiance and pledge of loyalty to the United Kingdom. After this rite, you will receive your British nationality certificate and an information pack to learn more about your new rights and responsibilities as a British citizen.
If you live outside the UK, you can ask the embassy or consulate in your country to have your ceremony there. Otherwise, if you plan to return to the UK within 3 months of getting your invitation, you may postpone your function.
If you are married to a UK national, you can submit your application for naturalisation after three years of lawful and continuous residence in the UK as a settled person.
Before you submit your Form AN, Application for Naturalisation as a British Citizen, you must ensure you meet the following requirements:
You will be asked to provide proof of at least three years of residence in the UK.
Not every child born in this country automatically receive British Citizenship by birth. In fact, to be eligible, at least one of the parents must be a British citizen or hold settled status.
Children born in the UK to non-British citizens parents will automatically be recognized as dependants, and thus subject to the same visa rules as their parents. If this is your case, you may be able to register for British citizenship at a later time.
British Citizenship by descent is acquired by those who were born outside the UK from at least one parent who was or is a British citizen. In other words, British nationality cannot be automatically passed on any child who is born abroad.
If you were born after 1st January 1983, you may be able to register for UK nationality by descent if you have a British born grandfather who was in Crown service, or if one of your parents was born in a former British colony.
According to the 2009 Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act, the path to nationality and permanent residence in the UK for refugees comprises three different stages:
On average, British nationality applications are processed within three to six months. However, this timeframe may vary depending on the complexity of your case and the volume of requests that the Home Office has to handle.
Since you do not need to send your original passport along with your Naturalisation form, you can travel abroad freely while your case is processed.
You cannot track your application status online. Nevertheless, you can get in touch with the UKVI either by email or over the phone to enquire about the status of your request at any time.
You can apply to give up and renounce your British citizenship or status. For instance, you might wish to do this to become a citizen of another country that does not allow dual nationality. On the other hand, it must be noted that, if you wish to register as a national of a country that allows dual citizenship, you do not need to renounce status in the UK.
Once your request is accepted, you will receive a “declaration of renunciation”. This can be used to demonstrate that you are no longer British. However, this will only affect you. Any other member of your family will retain his or her status as a UK national.
To renounce your status as a British national, you must be at least 18 years old. Besides, you need to meet the “sound mind” requirement, meaning that you must legally be considered able to make your own decisions.
Resumption of British Citizenship
If you have given up your status, but you changed your mind, you can apply for resumption. However, as the British Nationality Act 1981 states, this may be possible only if “renunciation was necessary to enable the applicant to retain or acquire some other nationality”. When applying to resume your status, you must prove that you still have strong and reasonable connections with the UK. Although you may have been a British national in the past, the Home Office will need to review your good character before allowing you to reclaim your status.
Since there is no requirement to renounce previous nationalities, dual citizenship is always allowed in the UK. Holding dual nationality means that you can be British national and also a citizen of another country of your choice. In addition, UK law also allows multiple citizenships. Therefore, you can apply for UK Naturalisation even if you already hold more than one more nationality.
You do not need to register for dual citizenship. If you are already a British national, you can apply for foreign citizenship in any country that allows dual nationality.
On the other hand, each county has its own rules relating to dual nationality. For this reason, it is essential to check with your country’s consulate or embassy if you can maintain your status in the UK.
When you send your request, you should take several factors to take into account. For example, as a dual national, you cannot get diplomatic help from the British government when you are in any other country where you hold your other permanent residence.
If you are a British citizen and you want to attain citizenship of a country which does not allow dual nationality, you will need to give up your status. In other circumstances, becoming a British citizen may automatically result in a loss of any previous nationality. Before you submit your request, it is advisable to also check if you need to notify your country of original citizenship of your intention to naturalise in the UK.
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