According to new data from the UK Department of the Interior, record-breaking Americans applied for British citizenship in the first quarter of 2025, aligning with the beginning of the US president of Donald Trump’s second term.
Between January and March, 1,931 U.S. citizens filed applications for UK citizenship, marking the highest quarterly total since the start of record in 2004, with a 12% increase in the previous quarter. In the last three months of 2024, the surge was consistent with Trump’s re-election.
These data suggest that Americans are growing interest in establishing long-term residences in the UK, with a record 5,500 U.S. nationals gaining settlement status in 2024, up 20% the previous year. Settlement grants the right to live, work and study indefinitely in the UK and can serve as a way to citizenship.
The last comparable surge in the U.S. to U.S. migration was in 2020, at the height of Trump’s first term and at the peak of the pandemic on the 19th, when dissatisfaction with the U.S. political climate, public health response and cross-border tax burden drove many Americans abroad.
That year also saw record Americans officially abandoning U.S. citizenship, with more than 5,800 people giving up their passports in the first half of 2020 alone, almost all figures in 2019, Bambridge Counterats, a company specializing in international taxation.
“These are mainly people who have left the United States and just think they have enough,” Alistair Bambridge, a partner at the company, said in a 2020 interview.
“While the frustration associated with politics and pandemics is a key factor, the complexity of the U.S. tax system is often the last straw.”
While more Americans seem to be focusing on life in Britain and Europe, the path to citizenship is increasingly limited. Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced last week that the government will make tougher demands for legal immigration, including longer waiting times until new immigrants can’t apply for citizenship.
Meanwhile, Italy introduced new legislation this week that eliminates citizenship rights by great-grandparents, thus a popular route for Americans of Italian descent. Italy has also collected visa requirements for non-EU nationals in recent months, aligning with stricter immigration control trends in the wider Europe.
Despite the changing legal landscape, the UK’s status as a culturally familiar, English-speaking destination with strong institutions and health care still makes it an attractive option for American immigrants seeking higher stability or permanent moves abroad.
As Trump’s second term unfolds, immigrant and civic professions will be closely watched to see if this early peak in the app represents a persistent immigration trend or a short-term response to political uncertainty in the family.
