The number of Americans seeking UK citizenship has reached record levels since Donald Trump was re-elected President.
Over 6,100 US citizens applied last year, an all-time high after figures began two decades ago and 26 per cent more than in 2023.
Immigration lawyers claim the leader’s presidential bid and victory in early November helped spur the increase, with others adding the US political landscape was ‘a very serious driver’.
Elena Hinchin, partner at law firm Farrer & Co, said: ‘We’ve definitely seen more interest in citizenship from the US since the lead-up to the election campaign.
‘There’s much more interest than under the previous Trump administration.’
She added the UK’s abolition of non-dom tax status had also encouraged some wealthy Americans living in Britain to seek citizenship before they left, the Financial Times reports.
Some experts have cautioned against a black and white reading of the figures however with Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at Oxford university, pointing out politics tends to be a ‘third or fourth order factor’ for people moving from ‘safe countries’, not a key reason on its own.
Home Office data shows applications by Americans have risen steadily since the end of 2022.
Immigration lawyers say the leader’s presidential bid and victory in early November helped spur the increase, with others adding the US political landscape was ‘a very serious driver’
Overall, applications for UK citizenships were up 6 per cent last year to 251,000, another record
They surged in the last quarter of 2024 in particular, rising 40 per cent year on year to about 1,700.
Overall, applications for UK citizenships were up 6 per cent last year to 251,000, another record.
Eligibility for UK citizenship entails having lived in the UK for five years or having parents with British citizenship.
Anyone who is married to a Brit and has lived in the UK for three years can also apply.
Ono Okeregha, director at the law firm Immigration Advice Service, said there was a ‘huge spike’ in British citizenship searches the day after the US election in November.
There has also been an increase in Americans seeking citizenship in Ireland, with data revealing a 46 per cent rise in applications last year from people in North America with Irish ancestry.
Irish law allows US citizens to apply for citizenship through descent, if those seeking passports are able to prove that a grandparent was born in the European country.
There were a whopping 3,692 applications made from the US in November alone – the highest number seen in a single calendar month in ten years, RTE News reported.
Ellen DeGeneres and wife Portia de Rossi (both pictured) decided to move from California to the English countryside instead of Australia
Overall, applications for UK citizenships were up 6 per cent last year to 251,000, another record (file image)
Ellen DeGeneres notoriously stormed out of Hollywood last year incensed by the election of Donald Trump and moved to England for a fresh start in the Cotswolds.
US media reported Ellen and wife Portia, who donated money to Kamala Harris’s doomed election campaign, decided to ‘get the hell out’ of the US after Donald Trump’s victory, apparently vowing to never return.
But according to New Idea, the 67-year-old comedian also moved to England to focus on her comedy career.
‘Ellen wants to continue with her comedy work, and there is a huge scene in Britain,’ a source told the publication.
‘Sitting back and chilling on a beach in Australia is for when she’s ready to retire and Ellen’s not there yet.’
Discontent with Mr Trump has amplified in the past few days among his detractors after he was accused of deliberately escalating last week’s angry clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The President told off Zelensky in their Oval Office meeting on Friday, telling him to be more ‘thankful’ for US support against the invading Russian army in the three-year-old war and demanding he ‘make a deal’ with Moscow.
‘According to my assessment, this was not a spontaneous reaction to what Zelensky was saying but clearly a deliberate escalation,’ Germany’s likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters at a press conference about the White House meeting that also included US Vice President JD Vance.
