There are certain requirements you must meet in order to naturalise as a British citizen.

First of all, you must be at least 18 years old. Naturalisation is the process by which a non-British adult becomes a British citizen. If you are under 18 years old, the process is different and is called “registration”.

The second requirement is to be of full capacity, meaning “not of unsound mind”.

Then, you must meet the residence requirements. If you are not married to a British citizen, you must not have been absent from the UK for more than 450 days in the period of 5 years ending with the date of application. If you are married to a British citizen, you must not have been absent from the UK for more than 270 days in the period of 3 years ending with the date of application. Irrespective of whether you are or not married to a British citizen, you must not have been absent from the UK for more than 90 days in the period of 12 months ending with the date of application.

Furthermore, you must have indefinite leave to remain (settled status, if you are an EEA citizen and you have applied under the EU Settlement Scheme) and, if you are not married to a British citizen, you must have had this status for more than 12 months when you submit your application. If you are married to a British citizen, you can apply for British citizenship immediately after being granted indefinite leave to remain.

You also must be of good character. You will not normally be considered to be of good character if you have been convicted of or involved in a crime, if you have failed to pay your taxes or have accrued significant debt intentionally or recklessly, if you have made false claims in order to obtain benefits or have been deliberately dishonest or deceptive in other dealings with the UK government, if your activities have been notorious and cast serious doubt on your standing in the local community, if you overstayed your visa, worked in breach of conditions attached to your leave to enter or remain, assisted somebody in the evasion of immigration control or have breached immigration laws in some other way, or if you have previously been deprived of citizenship.

Another requirement is that that you must have sufficient knowledge of English language, and be able to demonstrate it. You can satisfy this requirement if you are a national of a majority English-speaking country, or by passing a speaking and listening test in English, or if you have an academic degree from the UK (or from abroad, if the degree is equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree or above, and if the course had been taught in English).

You must also have sufficient knowledge of life in the UK and you must be able to provide the required evidence to support this. You can find extensive information about the Life in the UK test on this article on my blog.

You also must intend to have your main home in the UK.

I am here to help

If you want to apply for British citizenship and need specialist advice, feel free to contact me. Please note that I am an accredited immigration adviser, not an employee of the UK Visas and Immigration. I charge fees for the advice provided.