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A record number of Americans are seeking UK citizenship, according to recent data.
In 2024, more than 6,100 US citizens applied for UK citizenship, marking a 26% increase from 2023 and the highest number recorded since data collection began in 2004. The figures reveal a significant rise in applications during the final three months of last year, coinciding with Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House, when there was a 40% year-on-year rise in applications.
The Guardian spoke with three Americans living in the UK about their reasons for wanting to become British citizens.
‘Healthcare, gun violence and politics – it all pushed us out’
Michael Lark, 58
I grew up in Pennsylvania but spent most of my life in Texas. My wife and I always thought we’d stay in the US and work to make things better, but after a while, we realised some things just weren’t going to change.
When my wife developed health issues after Covid, we started seeing just how much money we were spending on healthcare. That got us re-evaluating everything else. We’d always leaned more democratic. We’d always felt like when there were problems, we needed to stick around and try to help make everything better. But with my wife’s health issues and everything that was happening with Donald Trump, the more we looked at it, the more we realised that things weren’t going to get any better.
But it wasn’t just about politics: the culture of gun violence, the resignation people have about it. I think polls show that something like 80% of people want stronger gun laws, but the government won’t change things. I remember reading an interview with a parent in the US who told their kids: “Well, this is just the world we live in.” And I thought, no. It’s not the world we live in. It’s the world America lives in.
We moved to the UK in 2023 and settled in Shrewsbury, which has a great community of comic book professionals – my industry. Within weeks, we knew we weren’t going back.
With my particular visa, I have three years before I can apply for settlement and that’s what we intend to do. I already know I want to become a British citizen. We love it here and compared with where we lived in the United States, we just feel the quality of our life immediately improved dramatically.
There’s a sense of we’re all in this together and that does not exist in the United States. In the United States, it’s every man for himself, and everybody wants to get ahead with the implication being you’ve got to get ahead of somebody else to do that. I’m sure there are people have that sense here, but it’s not just an overriding cultural feeling.
‘I knew America wasn’t going in a good direction’
Joshua Hickman, 38
I was born in Virginia and grew up in rural Texas. I originally came to the UK in 2010 for what was supposed to be a short stay, but once I was here, I realised I wanted to stay permanently. I just felt like something was off about the US, though I couldn’t put my finger on it at first. Then Snowden exposed NSA surveillance, and it all clicked – I knew America wasn’t going in a good direction.
In 2016, after finishing my master’s degree, I had to return to the US because of visa restrictions. But by then, I’ve been too, how should I say, anglicised, if you will. My viewpoints on life in the world have been changed by being over here. And eventually I just got to the point where I realised that living in the US was never going to be an option. By that point, Trump was in power.
I was involved in Black Lives Matter protests in Montana, where we had militia men pointing guns at us while police stood by, and that was when I knew I couldn’t stay in the US long term. It was never going to be the safe place I wanted it to be. And, it was only going to get worse.
I came back to the UK in 2020 to study musical psychology, and now I work here on a visa. By 2028, I’ll be eligible for indefinite leave to remain. I always knew America had this in it. I just made sure I got out early. It takes a year before I can get a passport, so it’ll be by 2030 that I’m fully English.
‘It hit me that laws can change in an instant’
Melissa Clements, 38
I grew up right outside New York City and I moved here in 2009 for a blind date with my now husband. At the time, I thought I would be going back to the US for graduate school, but had to change to go here. I did my graduate degree at King’s and at the time they had the highly skilled migrant visa which they have gotten rid of which I think is one of the many reasons people are thinking about citizenship. I then got married to my husband and switched over to a [different] visa.
In 2014, I decided to pursue my German citizenship through my Jewish father’s heritage. At that point, I didn’t think of getting British citizenship because I thought I could live here for ever and it’s fine. And then Brexit happened. There was a question of EU rights, but I got my settled status.
I had two daughters and we bought a house here so we felt settled. But my dad is actually the one who keeps pushing me to get my British citizenship. Perhaps because he grew up as an immigrant and he knows what a piece of paper means. He always tells me you never know when they’re going to change the laws. And that is the predominant thing that echoes through my head.
When Trump was sworn in a second time and started making moves to revoke birthright citizenship, it hit me that laws can change in an instant.
Now, after years of living in the UK, I’ve completed all the requirements for citizenship. The only thing stopping me? I just don’t want to spend £1,500 on it. Still, I probably will. I just want to make sure I can always be wherever my daughters are.
