A record number of Americans filed for British citizenship last year, with the final quarter of 2024 seeing a record amount of applications—the same quarter that US President Donald Trump was re-elected.
According to data from the UK’s Home Office, almost 6,100 US individuals applied for UK citizenship last year, the largest since records started in 2004, when fewer than 3,000 Americans did so.
In comparison to 2023, when fewer than 5,000 US residents applied, last year’s figures likewise showed a significant increase.
Applications by Americans soared in the last three months of 2024, when more than 1,700 people applied – the most in any quarter in the past two decades.
The surge is reminiscent of an upswing recorded in the first six months of 2020, when more than 5,800 Americans gave up their citizenship, nearly tripling the number from all of 2019.
That uptick came in the wake of Trump’s first presidency and changes in tax policy, analysts argued then, and were mostly Americans who had already been living in Britain for some time.
While many people who renounced their citizenship complained of being unhappy with the political climate in the US, another reason for their decision is often taxes, Alistair Bambridge, a partner at Bambridge Accountants, told CNN in August 2020.
Trump himself could apply for British citizenship, through his late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born and raised in Scotland before leaving as a 17-year-old for the United States to work as a domestic servant in 1930.
As more Americans scramble for UK passports, some British citizens have recently sought their own backups.
