Hedgehog wrote:I am an Australian citizen with Certificate of Entitlement to Right of Abode and I've been living and working in Britain for almost 3 years. Could anyone tell me what my possibilities are for British citizenship? Do I have to be resident for 5 years or for 3 years? Difficult to find any info about this, so anything you can tell me would be good.
Thank you.
All the information you need is at
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk (it can be slow during UK business hours)
You can apply for
naturalisation as a British citizen after 5 years resident in the UK, or 3 years if married to a British citizen.
Alternatively, if you have Right of Abode you are probably entitled to apply for
registration as a British citizen on the grounds of a UK born mother, if that's how you got ROA (it's the most common way) and you were born on or after 8 February 1961. However, think hard about this - it gives British citizenship
by descent while naturalisation gives British citizenship
otherwise than by descent.
The difference is that if you naturalise as a British citizen, and then leave the UK, then
overseas born children should normally automatically be eligible for British citizenship (by descent). On the other hand if you are British by descent then your overseas born children will need to be registered as British and there are additional requirements and time limits for this.
Once registered as a British citizen, you can't subsequently switch to being British
otherwise than by descent.
One further point. If you apply for naturalisation as a British citizen and you are
not married to a British citizen, you need to declare an intent to remain living in the UK (you can change your mind later on). If you are using your non-domiciled status to shelter non-UK source income, then you'll probably no longer be able to do so if you naturalise, if you're
not married to a British citizen. If you are married to a British citizen, or you apply for registration, then no future intentions requirement exists, however it's still a grey area. If you're in this situation you'll likely have a professional tax consultant, so discuss this issue if important to you.
