What is the Average British Citizenship Waiting Time?

If you’ve been living in the UK for a while, you might find yourself thinking about British Citizenship. However, with a lot of things to do with visa paperwork and general government-run bureaucracy, these things can take a very long time to come through.

So, what is the average British citizenship waiting time, and what do you need to achieve it?

Let’s dive in and find out more.

Who is Eligible for British Citizenship?

Honestly, there are a lot of different groups of people who are eligible to apply for British citizenship, but these groups are pretty particular. Each group has a couple of different subsections and rules as well, so we’ll go into them one by one.

Each path to British citizenship has its own criteria, often determined by the amount of time you’ve spent in the UK or the year you were born, so look carefully to see which is the right path for your situation.

Getting British Citizenship if you were born in the UK

If you were born in the UK after 1983 and one of your parents was either a British citizen at the time, has settled status, or has become a British citizen since.
If you lived in the UK until you were 10 or older.
If you were born before 1983 and your father was a diplomat working for a non-UK country.
If you were born before 1983 and your father was ‘an enemy alien in occupation’ and you were born in the Channel Islands during World War 2.

If you’re married or in a civil partnership with a UK citizen

You can apply for British citizenship once you have lived in the UK for the last three years.
You’ll need to have Indefinite Leave to Remain or EU Settled Status to apply.

You have EU Settled Status

You’ll need to have lived in the UK for five years to get EU Settled Status.
You can apply for citizenship 12 months after you’ve received your Settled Status.

If you have Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)

You’ll need to have lived in the UK for five years to get Indefinite Leave to Remain.
You can apply for citizenship 12 months after you’ve received your ILR status.

You have a British parent

If you were born or adopted after July 2006 and one of your parents is a British citizen.
If you were born between 1983 and June 2006, and one of your parents had British citizenship. If the parent was your father, your mother and father need to have been married when you were born or adopted.
If you were born before 1983, your father needs to be a British citizen and married to your mother, who needs to be a citizen of the UK and colonies.

Applying as a British National

If you’ve lived in the UK for five years
If you have worked as a Crown servant either as a diplomat, in the armed forces, or in overseas civil service.
If you have connections to Gibraltar.
If you’ve lived in Hong Kong.

You have a parent with British Overseas Territory citizenship

If you were born before 1983 and your mother had British Overseas Territory citizenship.
If your parents weren’t married, but if they were, you would’ve inherited your parents’ British Overseas Territory citizenship.

You’re stateless

This is a very extreme case, as statelessness is not a common occurrence and happens if a country ceases to exist due to war or occupation, or if, for some reason, you personally have had your citizenship stripped.

As such, the rules about British citizenship for stateless people are often applied on a case-by-case basis.

You previously renounced your citizenship

If you’ve renounced your citizenship to gain another citizenship that doesn’t allow dual nationality, or for another reason, you might be able to regain your British citizenship. But again, there are very specific circumstances under which you can regain British citizenship.

You’re a Chagossian descendant

This basically applies if you are a direct descendant of someone born in the British Indian Ocean Territory. However, there are ongoing discussions between Mauritius and the UK over who owns the Chagos Archipelago, so this could be due to change.

General eligibility criteria for all applications

Before you submit your citizenship application, there are a few legal stipulations that you need to be mindful of in order to get your application accepted.

You need to be 18 years old or older.
In the 12 months leading up to your application, you cannot be out of the UK for more than 90 days (three months).
You have to prove that you were in the UK exactly five years before you made your citizenship application.
During this five-year period (six for those in the Indefinite Leave to Remain process), you need to prove that you have not been away from the UK for more than 450 days in total.
You haven’t breached any UK immigration laws.
You are of good character.
You have adequate knowledge of life in the UK, normally proven through a Life in the UK test.
You have adequate knowledge of the English language and have documentation to support your English language level.
You intend to make the UK your permanent home.

What’s the Difference Between Citizenship and Naturalization?

So, throughout this guide, we’re going to be talking about British citizenship and the naturalization process. To clarify before we go any further, citizenship is the status that you achieve through the process of naturalization.

When we say how long the naturalization process takes, we’re referring to the process of gaining British Citizenship.

As with any kind of bureaucracy, there are a lot of different terms for specific parts of the citizenship process to get your head around. With this in mind, let’s check out the different timelines for the naturalization process in the UK!

How Long Do You Need to Live in the UK for Naturalization?

On the whole, you need to live in the UK for at least six years to start the naturalization process. This is because you need to live in the UK for five years to get either Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Once you’ve secured these, you need to wait a further 12 months before you can start the naturalization process to get British citizenship.

Of course, there are paths to British citizenship that take a lot less time, including if you’re married to a British citizen, or if you’re claiming citizenship through your parents or birthplace.

However, six years is the standard length of time that most people will have to live in the UK before applying for UK citizenship.

What is the Naturalization Process?

Okay, so now you know if you’re eligible for British citizenship or not, let’s dive into the actual naturalization process. As with anything to do with visa upkeep and citizenship, there is a lot of red tape.

First of all, you’ll need to fill in the appropriate naturalization form online to start the process. With this application form, you need to submit a whole host of supporting documentation and your application fee of £1,330.

It’s worth saying now that the application form is very long. It’s around 30 pages long, and that’s without including the supporting documentation. Make sure you carve out plenty of time to go through all the sections and complete them properly, including checking them at least twice before submitting!

There are sections about your personal information, living situation, character references, good character sections, and more. It’s extensive for a reason!

Add in your supporting documentation and any required documents, such as your marriage certificate if you’re applying as a spouse of a British citizen, and wait for the results to come through. As a process, it’s quite straightforward, but the size of the application makes it a tedious and time-consuming task.

What Documents Do You Need for UK Naturalization?

Of course, as with any visa application, you’re going to need to submit a pile of supporting documentation with your citizenship application.

While there will be some variations depending on your path to citizenship, such as spousal, by birth, through your parents, etc., there are a few core documents that pretty much everyone will have to submit.

Your original passport with information on your current nationality
Any visas that you’ve held since being in the UK
Certificate of IELTS, which is your English language test
Certification or proof that you’ve completed the Life in the UK test
Proof of UK residence
Indefinite Leave to Remain authorization, approval, or proof that you’re not subject to UK immigration restrictions
Any and all travel documents from the past five years to prove continued presence in the UK and that you haven’t exceeded the 450 days out of the UK limit.

To be honest, you will probably have the majority of these documents on hand from previous visa applications or your Indefinite Leave to Remain application.

A lot of them are the same, so just pull an additional copy of each document when you’re doing that ILR application!

Why do I need travel records?

The main one that is different and has a lot of housekeeping to maintain is the travel records. As you can only be out of the UK for 450 days in the qualifying five years before you apply for citizenship, you need to keep hold of any vacation information, business travel, or family visits during that period.

Remember that in the final 12 months before your application, you can only spend a maximum of 90 days outside of the UK to qualify.

This encompasses all kinds of international travel, including work trips and conferences, so keep that in mind when you plan your leisure trips and speak to your bosses at work before any international meetings or trips if you’re getting close to the limit.

No one wants to fall at the final hurdle and spend another year waiting around for British citizenship!

Naturalization Timeline If You’re on a Spousal Visa

Applying for citizenship for people who are married or in a civil partnership with a British citizen is slightly different and kind of confusing in terms of timelines.

The guidance says that you can apply for naturalization after three years of living in the UK; however, you also need to have either Indefinite Leave to Remain or EU Settled Status. These can only be obtained after you’ve lived in the UK for five years.

So, you do have to spend five years living in the UK before you can apply for citizenship, even on a spousal visa. The main difference is that you can apply for citizenship as soon as you’ve secured your Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Unlike other applicants, if you’re married or in a civil partnership with a British citizen, you do not have to wait an additional 12 months to apply.

Whereas for most people, the naturalization timeline is a minimum of six years, for applicants who are married to British citizens, the timeline is only five years.

Naturalization Timeline for EU Nationals

So, the EU Settled Status only applies if you arrived in the UK before the 31st of December 2020. Before you can apply for citizenship, you have to have held Settled Status for five years.

It kind of works in a reversed way to Indefinite Leave to Remain, as you can only apply for that once you’ve been here for five years.

All in all, if you have Settled Status, you can apply for citizenship after five years.

Of course, if you’re an EU citizen and you’ve arrived in the UK after 2020, you’ll need to follow the standard Indefinite Leave to Remain pathway to citizenship.

How Long Does the Naturalization Application Take to Be Processed?

Honestly, the processing time for a naturalization application is kind of insane. On average, most citizenship applications take six months to be processed, so you’re waiting to hear for a pretty long time.

The good thing is that, as you have to have Indefinite Leave to Remain, you’re not in danger of overstaying a visa while you wait for a response, unlike when you’re waiting to hear back about visa applications.

In some cases, when the application is a straightforward, cut-and-dry decision, it can take between three and four months, but this is the exception rather than the rule. You should definitely allocate six months for your citizenship decision to come through.

No one said bureaucracy was quick!

How much does British Citizenship cost?

The application fee for naturalization is £1,330 per person. This doesn’t take into account any fees you might need to pay for taking language tests or getting official copies of your documentation translated into English.

That being said, you may have already paid these fees for your Indefinite Leave to Remain application or other past visa applications.

Getting British citizenship is definitely not a cheap process, given how much money you will have spent to date on at least five years of visa applications and Indefinite Leave to Remain applications. Collectively, it can easily cost £10,000 in application fees alone over the qualifying five years.

Can You Travel After Submitting Your Naturalization Application?

As long as you still have your original passport, you can continue to travel while your naturalization application is being processed. This means that you need to submit a certified copy of your passport as part of your naturalization application.

Of course, in the 12 months leading up to your naturalization application, you can only leave the UK for a maximum of 90 days, but once it’s submitted, you should be free to travel in accordance with your Indefinite Leave to Remain status.

As you’ve already submitted your five years of travel documentation as part of your application, the government does not need to be informed of any further travel plans while the application is being reviewed.

However, it’s worth keeping in mind that if your citizenship application gets refused and you’ve spent longer than 90 days out of the UK in those 12 months, you might need to wait even longer until you’re eligible to reapply.

Can You Apply for Citizenship as Soon as You Get Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR)?

It depends on your pathway to citizenship when you are eligible to apply for naturalization. Most citizenship applications require Indefinite Leave to Remain, which can only be obtained after you’ve lived in the UK consecutively for five years.

The exceptions tend to be when applications for citizenship are through parental citizenship or birth.

If you’ve gained Indefinite Leave to Remain following living in the UK on a Spousal Visa, you can apply for citizenship straight away. This is specifically for applicants who are married to or are in a civil partnership with a British citizen.

However, if you have gained Indefinite Leave to Remain in pretty much any other way, you need to wait an additional 12 months after it’s been approved to apply for citizenship. This brings your total citizenship timeline to a minimum of six years, rather than five.

How to Know if You’re Automatically a British Citizen

There are a few instances where you might automatically be a British Citizen. This includes scenarios like if you were born in the UK after 2006 to at least one British or Settled parent and lived here until you were 10.

Similarly, if you were born between 1982 and 2006 and either your mother was a British citizen or a Settled person, or if your father was a British citizen or a Settled person and was married to your mother.

In these situations, you don’t have to do anything – you automatically have British citizenship.

British Citizenship Waiting Time if You’re Born in the UK

Conversely, if you don’t automatically have British citizenship, you can register for British citizenship if you meet certain criteria. This is usually if you were born and lived in the UK for the first 10 years of your life, but your parents weren’t citizens or didn’t have Settled Status when you were born.

Eligibility depends on the year you were born, but normally, you’re only allowed to spend up to 90 days outside the UK for the first 10 years of your life. That’s only nine days a year, so your parents can’t be taking you on a ton of family holidays early on in life!

This is usually just an application form with supporting documentation, the same as any other kind of visa. Like all British visas and citizenship applications, the fees aren’t cheap.

If you’re over 18, registering as a British citizen is going to cost you £1,431, which includes your citizenship ceremony fee.

If you’re under 18, the registration process costs slightly less at £1,214, but if you turn 18 during the application process, you will have to pay an additional £80 to cover the cost of the citizenship ceremony.

Again, the application processing time for this kind of citizenship is around six months. So, in total, you may have needed to live in the UK for 10 years before applying, making this one of the longest British citizenship waiting times.

Final Notes on the Average British Citizenship Waiting Time

Honestly, immigration in the UK has been a hot-button topic for a while, and the lengthy processing and eligibility times are in part designed to deter many people who might want to start a life in the UK.

The fact that you have to live in the UK, continuously applying for visas for a minimum of five years before you can apply for the relative security of Indefinite Leave to Remain, and in turn, citizenship, can be too much uncertainty for a lot of people.

Add in the long processing times, expensive visa and application fees, and piles of supporting documentation, and joining the pathway for British citizenship is not for the faint-hearted.

However, if you want to spend your life in the UK, citizenship is the ultimate goal for many expats.