A record number of Americans applied for UK citizenship as Trump began his second term

A record number of Americans applied for British citizenship between January and March, according to the first set of data covering the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term.

Some 1,931 Americans put in an application, the most since records began in 2004 and a jump of 12% on the previous quarter, figures from the UK Home Office showed Thursday. Applications had already soared during the October-December period, which coincided with Trump’s re-election.

Successful applications by US citizens to settle permanently in the United Kingdom, rather than just move there initially, also hit a record high last year, the latest period for which official data is available. Settlement comes with the right to live, work and study in Britain indefinitely and can be used to apply for citizenship. More than 5,500 Americans were granted settled status in 2024, a fifth more than in 2023.

The last time American applications for British citizenship spiked was in 2020, during Trump’s first presidential term and at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Other data also showed that in the first six months of 2020 more than 5,800 Americans gave up their citizenship, nearly triple the number from all of 2019. The statistics were compiled by Bambridge Accountants, a firm with offices in New York and London specializing in cross-border taxation.

“These are mainly people who already left the US and just decided they’ve had enough of everything,” Alistair Bambridge, a partner at Bambridge Accountants, told CNN in August 2020.

Many people who renounced their citizenship complained of being unhappy with the political climate in the United States at the time and how the pandemic was being handled, but another reason for their decision was often taxes, he said.

While many Americans are looking to build a life in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, that’s becoming more difficult.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last week that the government would toughen requirements for legal migrants and extend the wait for newcomers to claim citizenship.

And earlier this week, Italy enacted a law that removes the route to citizenship through great-grandparents. The country had already tightened visa rules for non-European Union citizens.

CNN’s Alaa Elassar, Barbie Latza Nadeau and Rob Picheta contributed reporting.

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