Americans applied for British citizenship in record numbers last year, with a historically high volume of applications submitted in the last quarter of 2024 a period coinciding with US President Donald Trump’s re-election. More than 6,100 US citizens applied for UK citizenship last year, the most since records began in 2004, when fewer than 3,000 Americans submitted an application, according to data from the UK’s Home Office. Last year’s numbers also saw a marked uptick from 2023, a year with fewer than 5,000 applications by US citizens.
Applications by Americans soared in the last three months of 2024, when more than 1,700 people applied the most in any quarter in the past two decades. The surge is reminiscent of an upswing recorded in the first six months of 2020, when more than 5,800 Americans gave up their citizenship, nearly tripling the number from all of 2019. That uptick came in the wake of Trump’s first presidency and changes in tax policy, analysts argued then, and were mostly Americans who had already been living in Britain for some time.
While many people who renounced their citizenship complained of being unhappy with the political climate in the US, another reason for their decision is often taxes, Alistair Bambridge, a partner at Bambridge Accountants, told CNN in August 2020.
Credit: CNN