Citizenship Requirements
If you’re an EU citizen and you were living in the UK by 31 December 2020, you can apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue living here after 30 June 2021. If you want to move to the UK from 1 January 2021, you may need to apply for a visa.
You can apply to settle in the UK (known as ‘indefinite leave to remain’) if you’ve got a residence card as a:
• refugee
• person with humanitarian protection
• If you are the partner of a person, or parent of a child, who is present and settled in the UK.
If you’re eligible in more than one way you can choose which way to apply:
• If you were born in the UK
You do not automatically get British citizenship if you were born in the UK. It depends on when you were born and your parents’ circumstances. You may be eligible to apply for citizenship if you were born in the UK and are not a British citizen.
• If you’re married to or in a civil partnership with a British citizen
To apply as the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen you must have lived in the UK for the last 3 years.
You cannot apply for a permanent residence document after 31 December 2020.
• If you have indefinite leave to remain (ILR)
You can usually apply for ILR after you’ve lived in the UK for 5 years.
To apply for citizenship with ILR you must usually have lived in the UK for 12 months after getting it.
• If you have ‘settled status’ under the EU Settlement Scheme If you and your family member are from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, you can apply for ‘settled status’ after you’ve lived in the UK for 5 years.
• If you had permanent residence status before you got settled status
• You do not need a permanent residence document to apply with settled status.
• If you have ‘permanent residence’ status
• If you or a family member are from the EU, EEA or Switzerland, you usually get permanent residence status automatically after living in the UK for 5 years.
From 1 January 2021, you can only apply for British citizenship with permanent residence status if:
• you already have a permanent residence document
• you do not also have settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme
Other ways you can be eligible:
You may be eligible to apply for citizenship if:
• you have a British parent
• you have another type of British nationality
• you’re stateless
• you previously gave up (renounced) your citizenship
• If you’re a Commonwealth citizen
You may be eligible to apply for citizenship under the Windrush Scheme if both:
• you or one of your parents arrived in the UK before 1973
• you’ve lived in the UK and not been away from it for more than 2 years If your parent arrived in the UK before 1973, you must have either:
• been born in the UK
• arrived in the UK before you were 18 Some Commonwealth citizens have ‘right of abode’ in the UK. This means you can live or work in the UK without immigration restrictions. Check if you can apply to prove you have right of abode in the UK.