British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Act 2024 to make it easier for Irish citizens to become British

The British Nationality (Irish Citizens) Act 2024 is one of the final pieces of legislation passed by the government before dissolution and when brought into force it will provide an entitlement to registration as a British citizen to Irish citizens who meet the requirements.

Under the new law, there will be the following requirements to meet for Irish citizens:

• the person was in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the period of five years ending with the date of their application;
• the person was absent from the United Kingdom for—
  (i) no more than 450 days in the period of five years ending with the date of their application, and
  (ii) no more than 90 days in the period of 12 months ending with the date of their application; and
• the person was not in the United Kingdom in breach of the immigration laws at any time in the period of five years ending with the date of their application.

The procedure to become British for Irish citizens shall be via submitting registration application (instead of naturalization application).

The given amendments are expected to come into force this summer, however, the exact date so far remains unknown.

It is worth underlining that previously, Irish citizens were able to become British via the standard procedure of naturalization, just like citizens of other countries rely on.

With the new law, as outlined above, Irish citizens shall have a simplified procedure of becoming British where they would not be required to pass Life in the UK test and English language test, regardless of the applicant’s age and memorization capabilities.