A record number of Americans requested British citizenship between January and March, according to the first data from Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
About 1,931 Americans applied for citizenship, the largest number since the beginning of records in 2004 and a 12% increase over the previous quarter, according to data from the UK interior ministry released on Thursday (22). The requests had already fired from October to December, which coincided with Trump’s reelection.
Successful requests from US citizens to permanently set in the UK, instead of just moving there initially, also reached a record last year, the last period for which there are official data available.
Settlement includes the right to live, work and study in the UK indefinitely and can be used to request citizenship. More than 5,500 Americans received the status of permanent residence in 2024, one fifth more than in 2023.
The last time they increased them was in 2020, during Trump’s first presidential term and at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other data also showed that in the first six months of 2020, more than 5,800 Americans gave up their citizenship, almost triple the number recorded in 2019. The statistics were compiled by Bambridge Accountants, a company with offices in New York and London, specializing in international taxation.
“These are mostly people who have already left the US and simply decided it is enough,” said Alistair Bambridge, partner of Bambridge Accountants, CNN in August 2020.
Many people who renounced citizenship complained of being dissatisfied with the political climate in the United States at the time and the way the pandemic was being treated, but another reason for his decision was usually taxes, he said.
Although many Americans are seeking to build a life in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, this is becoming more difficult.
British Prime Minister Keir Strmer said last week that the government would harness the requirements for legal immigrants and extend the waiting time for newcomers to claim citizenship.
And earlier this week, I through the great -grandparents. The country had already harmed the visa rules for citizens outside the European Union.
