UK citizenship for EU national?

Question

Hi
I am an Europian Union national (Greece) lived in uk for 5 years. What do I have to do and how easy is to acquire UK citizenship and passport? How long it takes?

Thank you

Answer 1

You can apply if you really want to change UK citizenship. Here's what you have to do.

Since you are not a mother-tongue English speaker, you may have to take an ESOL to prove you are competent to take the citizenship test. (You may already be competent enough in English that they will waive the test). Then you take the citizenship test, which costs £34. You are asked a number of questions about life in Britain on the test. The answers are all in the handbook which is about 200 pages and which you can buy from major booksellers (£10). If you pass, you send the pass certificate with your application and the fee (£263). On the application you must state the dates of all your absences from the country in the past 5 years. You cannot have been out of the UK more than 450 days during that period. If you have been out of the UK for 451 days in the past five years, you are not eligible for British citizenship. You also need to produce two British references who know you well enough to attest to your good character (preferably professional people like a lawyer or a doctor, but an employer is also a good reference) and have no criminal record. You send all that along with the fee and in about 4 months if you satisfy all the requirements you get a certificate of citizenship. Then you attend a citizenship ceremony and swear allegiance to the Queen.

I am not Greek so have not checked this out. You may have to give up your Greek passport, or you might be able to retain it and have dual nationality. Check with the Greek Embassy in London or the Greek Department of State Affairs in Athens to make sure.

Basically, you have most of the same rights as UK citizens with your Greek citizenship. The differences are, you cannot vote in general elections, you cannot run for political office or become a civil servant or member of the police or armed forces, you are not eligible for (or required to) do jury service in Britain and you don't get the same reciprocal rights in Commonwealth countries (like under-25s being able to live for a time in Australia, etc).

Hope this all helps.