Immigrationboards.com

Hi,

I am and Indian national currently on ILR and will be due for BC in a little less than a year’s time. I am still in two minds about whether I should go ahead and take up British citizenship or stay at my current status of ILR. I am trying to assess the pros and cons of acquiring British citizenship. One of the major advantages that is obvious is unrestricted travel to Europe.
My question is where else in the world is a British national entitled to travel without applying for visa?
Can a British national travel to USA or Australia or Malaysia without a visa?
Is it any easier for a British national to travel to these destinations? Do British nationals have to go through lesser hassles of not applying for a visa in advance and just get a visa at arrival on port of these destinations?
Any advice or pointers to a web link that explains details about the above queries will be highly appreciated.

Cheers!
Imran

imranb wrote:Hi,

I am and Indian national currently on ILR and will be due for BC in a little less than a year’s time. I am still in two minds about whether I should go ahead and take up British citizenship or stay at my current status of ILR. I am trying to assess the pros and cons of acquiring British citizenship. One of the major advantages that is obvious is unrestricted travel to Europe.
My question is where else in the world is a British national entitled to travel without applying for visa?
Can a British national travel to USA or Australia or Malaysia without a visa?
Is it any easier for a British national to travel to these destinations? Do British nationals have to go through lesser hassles of not applying for a visa in advance and just get a visa at arrival on port of these destinations?
Any advice or pointers to a web link that explains details about the above queries will be highly appreciated.

Cheers!
Imran

Recently i read an article in a newspaper that British Citizens can travel to 170 countries visa-free. It's always good to check on this website before travel if you need visa:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/

Also this wikipedia page may be able to help you but all the information in wikipedia is not always authenticated though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_requi ... _nationals

For USA you can visit upto 90 days without visa but you have to fill up a form on esta.cbp.dhs.gov 72 hours before travelling. For austra you can visit without visa. For more info see this link http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-liv ... /australia

No sure about malaysia

For me, applying for citizenship is more than just getting the passport. It's to integrate within the society you live and want to be part of in future.

Although I'm not naive and I do realise that many non EU nationals might be more concerned about visa free travel.

For the countries you listed (USA, Australia, Malaysia) there is no need for a visa for UK passport holders for short stay (normally upto 3 months).

Jambo wrote:For me, applying for citizenship is more than just getting the passport. It's to integrate within the society you live and want to be part of in future.

Although I'm not naive and I do realise that many non EU nationals might be more concerned about visa free travel.

For the countries you listed (USA, Australia, Malaysia) there is no need for a visa for UK passport holders for short stay (normally upto 3 months).

Thank you cricinfo.....the weblinks do provide a lot of guidance on the subject.
Thank you Jambo. appreciate your advice...though i must say that everyone's circumstances are different....so yes BC is definitely a major step in integrating with the society here......but I think in my case......I feel a lot at home and integrated here already even without citizenship....and there are other pressing personal reasons that might deter me from taking it up....I was just weighng in the pros and cons against my circumstances.......anyways...thanks for your advice and I appreciate it.

I think it is also a bit different for countries that don't allow dual citizenship, like India.

My country [and many others] allows dual citizenship, so getting UK one is not a question of one or the other.