When you apply for naturalisation and a British passport, it means that you are at the final stage of becoming a British citizen. Normally, it takes several years of serious effort and careful planning to be able to apply for British citizenship.
If you obtain British citizenship, you can live, work, study and run a business in the UK without any restrictions, as well as cross British borders freely. The status of a British citizen is prestigious and is revoked only in exceptional cases, so your and your family’s position will be secured.
British legislation that allows to obtain British citizenship through naturalisation is rather strict. It often happens thatrefusal from British immigration authorities crashes the hopes of a migrant who has long lived in the UK and was sure that their dream was about to come true. To avoid this turn of events, it’s better to get support from qualified immigration advisors. They will help you to gather all the necessary documents and fill in the application form correctly.
Naturalisation allows immigrants who have lived and successfully worked in the UK for several years to get British citizenship. Normally, by this time, they already have permanent residence.
10 steps to obtaining British citizenship
Most migrants who come to the UK on work and business visas must spend at least 12 months there as permanent residents before they can apply for British citizenship.
To obtain a British passport, you must spend six years in the UK: five years on a long-term visa and 12 months as a permanent resident. The only exception applies to spouses of UK nationals. They can apply for British citizenship after three years of living in the UK and after obtaining permanent residence.
Applicants mustn’t spend outside the UK more than:
Visa type
Time period
Most long-term visas, except for Global Talent
6 years
Global Talent visa
5 years
Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa
5–6 years
Innovator visa
Sole Representative visa
Investor visa
Spouse, Marriage and Partner visas
5 years*
Other legal routes
10 years
*Note: to get permanent residence, you need to stay in the UK for five years. You can apply for citizenship immediately after becoming a permanent resident, and only last three years in the country will be counted.
If you aren’t married to a UK citizen, you need to fulfil the following requirements to obtain a British passport:
If you are a spouse of a British national or a UK settled person, you need to fulfil the following requirements to obtain a British passport:
To prove that you have a clean criminal record, an applicant needs to have no criminal convictions, traffic fines, violations of administrative and immigration legislation and financial issues (bankruptcy, illegally acquired public benefits, tax debts), etc. If you have any of these violations on your criminal record, you need to mention this in your application. You also need to consult your legal advisor to find the best way to act under these circumstances.
Here is the list of the documents that are necessary to get British citizenship:
Imperial & Legal advisors will help you to gather, translate and notarise all necessary accompanying documents.
For most immigration categories, you can use an online application form. At first, you need to choose the required form type, then carefully fill in the form by answering all the questions. The application fee can also be paid online.
After you submit your application and pay the application fee, you will receive your reference number. Use it to upload all the accompanying documents to the official portal and make an appointment in one of the immigration centres to submit biometric data.
It can take up to six months for the Home Office to process an application, but it usually happens quicker. The processing depends on whether you submitted all the documents. To avoid any issues, it is important to get support from qualified immigration advisors.
If the Home Office is happy with all the evidence, you will receive a letter of approval and an invitation to a citizenship ceremony. Only after swearing an oath/pleading an allegiance, you will get a certificate of naturalisation.
You can obtain British citizenship if:
The most common reasons for a refusal are incorrectly filled applications and absence of some accompanying documents. It is less often that your application is refused because of the Home Office caseworker’s mistake, but they are also humans and can make mistakes.
Imperial & Legal advisors can guarantee that there will be no issues with filling in your application and preparing thedocuments with their help. If your application has been refused, our experts will analyse your case and work out aplan of action. Possible solutions:
At first glance, a settled person has the same rights as a national. What’s more, migrants often choose to remain permanent residents, especially if it is forbidden in their homeland to have multiple nationalities.
Permanent residents don’t have to obtain additional permits to live, work, do business and study in the UK. Just as citizens, they have access to healthcare services, social benefits and voting during local elections. Besides, settled people can sponsor their foreign relatives for them to join them in the UK. Children of permanent residents becomeBritish citizens automatically if they are born on the UK territory. However, British settled people can lose their status if they are absent from the UK for too long. Migrants coming from countries outside the Schengen Area can leave the UK for not more than two years.
The main difference between a permanent resident and citizen is that your nationality has no expiration date and cannot be annulled. What’s more, as a citizen, you get an opportunity to travel around the world visa-free.
According to the immigration rules, your referees can be chosen from two groups of people:
Unfortunately, British government doesn’t offer any citizenship by investment programs that allow foreign investors toget second passport under accelerated scheme. To become a British citizen, you must stay in the country for a long time, prove your good knowledge of English and local customs.
However, British immigration rules allow migrants on Tier 1 Investor visa, who invested at least £5,000,000 into theUK business, to apply for citizenship one year earlier, i.e. after five years, with two or three years of stay in the countryas permanent residents.
No, it isn’t. In the UK, it isn’t forbidden to have multiple nationalities, so you won’t have to revoke your first citizenshipto get a British passport unless it’s required in your home country.
There are three types of costs:
You can also pay to accelerate the application process. Normally, application fee and ceremony costs are addedtogether for convenience. There are two most common scenarios:
If you are a child of a British citizen or permanent resident and want to obtain British citizenship by naturalisation, thecosts will amount to:
We are OISC regulated immigration lawyers that provide full immigration support in obtaining British citizenship by investment. Contact us now to get expert advice.
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