appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Bloomberg

The United Kingdom has seen a spike in the number of migrants applying for citizenship and permanent settlement ahead of a planned government clampdown.
Government data shows what appears to be a rush to secure residency rights in response to changes announced by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood that would force migrants to wait longer before they can gain them.
The Home Office said 199,628 people were granted settlement, giving them the right to live, work and study in the UK permanently, in the year through June 2026. Most granted indefinite leave to remain can then apply for citizenship after 12 months.
These figures represent a 24 per cent increase from a year earlier and the highest number since 2010. Over the same 12 month period, 245,520 people were granted British citizenship.
Although that was slightly lower than a year earlier, the number of citizenship applications surged 17 per cent to a record 315,224. There was a 44 per cent increase in the number of citizenship applications refused.
The proposed reforms to indefinite leave to remain, which offers permanent settlement rights and a route to citizenship, would double the qualification period from five to 10 years and are controversial among members of the governing Labour Party.


The government is currently consulting on the proposals for stricter settlement rules and new Prime Minister Andy Burnham is under pressure from Labour MPs to reconsider whether to push ahead with the changes, first announced under his predecessor Keir Starmer.
Migration is a difficult political topic for Burnham, who also faces pressure from parties on the right over the issue. The Conservatives and Reform UK parties have suggested they would remove settlement rights from people who currently have it.
The UK continued to see a rise in the number of Americans applying to remain in the country.
More than 9,400 US nationals applied for British citizenship, either through registration or naturalisation, over the last year.
But the US remains behind India, Pakistan, Italy, Nigeria, Romania and Poland in the list of nationalities seeking citizenship.
Nuni Jorgensen, researcher at the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the increase in citizenship applications reflects rising migration with a particularly sharp jump among European Union nationals, pointing to a sudden change in people’s desire to become British.
“The data do not tell us why, although it is possible that government and opposition party debates about restricting rights or removing people without citizenship may have played a role,” she said.
“Research suggests that uncertainty can encourage migrants to secure their status by applying for citizenship.”
The figures also showed a sharp fall in the number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels, a flashpoint for community tensions in recent years.
The figure stood at 16,021 at the end of June, down 50 per cent year on year and the lowest since data was first reported in 2022.
Mahmood said in a statement that the Labour government is “restoring control” of the contentious asylum system.


What Hong Kong educators can learn from Yidan Prize winners

Wing Shya: photographer to Wong Kar-wai on working with the great and good of Hong Kong cinema

Barristers dismiss calls for solicitors to gain senior counsel status in Hong Kong

UK media is ‘cancerous’ to Harry and Meghan, Diana’s brother says

Britain

Foreigners jostle to secure UK residency rights before rules tighten

Commuters cross London Bridge during heavy rainfall in Britain on Thursday. Photo: EPA

French, UK vessels save 157 migrants from burning boat in Channel

Migrants disembark from a French rescue ship in Boulogne-sur-Mer on Tuesday following their rescue at sea after their boat caught fire during an attempt to cross the English Channel from France to Britain. Photo: AFP

Migrants walk from a French rescue ship in Boulogne-sur-Mer on Tuesday following their rescue at sea after their boat caught fire during an attempt to cross the English Channel from France to Britain. Photo: AFP

France condemns Farage-led plan to deploy British navy against Channel migrants

Nigel Farage announcing Reform's tougher immigration policy. Photo: Reuters

Migrants aboard a smugglers’ boat attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Gravelines, northern France. Photo: AFP

Migrants try to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. Photo: AP

News

World

Europe

The proposed reforms to a scheme offering permanent residency would double the qualification period from five to 10 years


The proposed reforms to a scheme offering permanent residency would double the qualification period from five to 10 years.


Andy Burnham

Chinese overseas

Asian diaspora

British National (Overseas) passport

Foreigners jostle to secure UK residency rights before rules tighten

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The proposed reforms to a scheme offering permanent residency would double the qualification period from five to 10 years

The proposed reforms to a scheme offering permanent residency would double the qualification period from five to 10 years