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US applications for British citizenship hit a record high during the first few months of Donald Trump’s presidency, as immigration lawyers report a surge in Americans looking to move to the UK.
More than 1,930 US citizens applied in the first three months of 2025, the highest number since records began and a 12 per cent rise on the previous quarter, according to official data published on Thursday.
Immigration lawyers said US political instability had led to a jump in inquiries about UK visas and citizenship, with particularly strong interest from US professionals following Trump’s tariff announcements.
“People are leaving because of fear, frustration and financial security. Beyond that is a deeper fear about personal safety,” said Ono Okeregha, director at the Immigration Advice Service, a law firm.
This is the first set of data to cover the start of Trump’s second term, but earlier figures had already shown a sharp rise in citizenship applications following the US presidential election in November.
The Home Office data also revealed a 9.6 per cent rise in US applications for study visas in the first three months of 2025 compared with the same period last year, driven by growing demand for undergraduate courses. This comes after Trump launched attacks on some of America’s top universities, accusing them of promoting progressive politics and a culture of “wokeness” on campus.
Claire Nilson, an immigration lawyer at Faegre Drinker Biddle and Reath LLP, said the political climate had driven Americans to “seek stability and opportunities abroad”, especially those in the LGBTQ community and other marginalised groups.
She added that the rise in applications reflected the wave of immigrants who came to the UK during Trump’s first term and have now been in the country long enough to apply for indefinite leave to remain and then citizenship.
Madeleine Sumption, director of Oxford university’s Migration Observatory, said it was “plausible” that the US political climate had influenced application trends, with data showing Americans were now more likely to apply for citizenship.
She added that recent legislation had also expanded citizenship rights to some non-resident Americans with UK-born grandparents for the first time.
Overall applications for UK citizenship hit a record high of 72,729 in the first quarter of 2025. The figures come a week after the government announced tighter requirements for settlement, one of the main routes to citizenship for people who do not have family ties to the UK.
