May 24 (UPI) — A record number of Americans applied to become British citizens during the first three months of this year after Donald Trump re-took office as president, according to official data.
The last time American applications for British citizenship spiked was in 2020 during Trump’s first presidential term early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
This comes as the British government is toughening requirements for legal migrants and extending the wait for newcomers to claim citizenship.
Britain’s Home Office on Thursday reported 6,618 U.S. citizens applied for British citizenship over the past 12 months through March, the highest annual figure since records began in 2004. That includes 1,931 applications between January and March — the highest number for any quarter on record.
There also is a record number of Americans seeking to live and work indefinitely in the country as a necessary precursor to citizenship. Of the 5,521 settlement applications granted last year, most were for people eligible because of their spouses, parents and other family links. And a substantial portion had originally arrived in Britain on temporary visas for “skilled workers” and want to remain.
For the year through March, there were 238,690 applications worldwide, an increase of 238,690 for the same period last year.
Some people might qualify “more swiftly” for permanent settlement in Britain depending on the “contribution” they made, Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, said in Parliament on May 12.
Since Trump was elected president again, immigration lawyers told The New York Times they had received an increased number of inquiries from people in the United States about possibly relocating to Britain.
“People who were already here may have been thinking, ‘I want the option of dual citizenship in the event that I don’t want to go back to the U.S,'” Muhunthan Paramesvaran, a senior immigration lawyer at Wilsons Solicitors in London, said.
There also have been increased applications from non-U.S. citizens living there seeking to go to Britain.
“We’ve seen increases in inquiries and applications not just for U.S. nationals, but for U.S. residents of other nationalities who are currently in the U.S. but looking at plans to settle in the U.K.,” Zeena Luchowa, a partner at Laura Devine Immigration, a law firm that specializes in American migration to Britain, said. “The queries we’re seeing are not necessarily about British citizenship – it’s more about seeking to relocate.”
This comes as British authorities under a Labor government are trying to reduce immigration. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain has to take “back control of our borders” and warned uncontrolled immigration could result in “becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
British figures show net migration dropped by almost half in 2024 to 431,000 compared with 2023.
The British government had extended the qualification period from five years to 10 before they could apply for settlement.
Also, the government wants to raise English language requirements across every immigration route. In 2021, nine out of 10 migrants reported speaking English well, according to analysis by the Oxford University Migration Observatory.
On May 5, European Union nations announced they would spend $566 million from 2025 to 2027 to attract foreign researchers after the Trump administration cut funding to universities in the United States. Britain left EU in 2020.
Under Trump’s direction, there will be a “gold card” at a cost of $5 million, as an extension of the EB-5 program that extends green cards to foreign investors and their families.
“We’re going to be selling a gold card,” Trump told reporters on Feb. 5 in the Oval Office, which is adorned by items in gold.
The current program grants green cards to immigrants who make a minimum investment of at least $1.050 million or $800,000 in economically distressed areas.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Wednesday: “I expect there will be a website up called ‘Trump card dot gov’ in about a week. The details of that will come soon after, but people can start to register.”