To be worried about my indefinite leave to remain. Should I get British citizenship?

I'm not sure this will true if Reform gets in

Not completely true. Commonwealth citizens are able to vote in all U.K. elections

I think this is a very good point to bring up.

Many think that you are automatically British if you are born in the UK. You’re not. One parent needs to a be British citizen.
I’m assuming OPs parents aren’t British which is why she applied for ILR (long residence). After holding ILR for one year you can apply for citizenship.

People think that children born here are British but they hold their parents nationality until they have been living here for 10 years and can apply for citizenship.

If they weren’t born in the UK but have lived here for 7 years and have no status they can apply for permission to stay. Which is renewable every 2.5 years - application fees and IHS (NHS) fees. They have to be under 18. After 5 years they can apply for ILR.

Everyone thinks it’s just a bloody free for all and migrants have babies to stay in the UK but it truly doesn’t work like that.

Foreigners are held to a different standard.

A good friend of mine was born and raised in England. Married an English man. Raising kids with him but will only consider herself Scottish despite having no desire to live there as that is what her parents are.

And old handyman of mine, proper “Essex Lad” laughed out loud at the thought of being seen as English / British.
He was, in his eyes, Irish and only Irish despite being legally British.

They can now even with FPTP. It could change of course but it’s doable.

What year were you born? What was your parents' immigration status in the UK when you were born? Did one or both of them have ILR at the time?

I would. Through my job I’ve seen people having ILR revoked because they worked or had caring responsibilities overseas for more than two years and didn’t realise it would lapse. I think having citizenship would feel more secure.

If I were you, I would get British Citizenship. You wouldn't have to renounce your EU country citizenship or your passport. And if things get too horrible here, you can duck out and live in your other country for a while!

I don't think I'm just being optimistic when I say that it's extremely unlikely that their bullshit ideas about deporting people with ILR will ever come to fruition.

Seeing that Starmer is saying he wants to change INTERNATIONAL law on refugees and asylum seekers, I wouldn’t be so sure…..

And I think the ‘but how can you not be feeling British’ posters need to ask welsh people living in England if they feel welsh or English. Or if their children are English or welsh seeing they were born in England….
How many children born from Scottish parents in England would tell you proudly theyre Scottish, not English?
There was a really good thread on that a few months ago (maybe a year now) around that subject.

No one bats an eye lid at that idea.
So why doing so for foreigners?

Fwiw my experience is that children from ‘foreign born’ parents have totally integrated British culture. But mingled in there Theres their culture too. Strongly. In the sense of humour, the food, their likes and dislikes. What they consider ok or not ok.
They cannot be 100% british. Not culturally at the very least.

Take the emotion out of it. It’s not going to get easier to get a British passport.

Reform’s ILR is probably undersold, ie it will apply to a bigger class of ILR that discussed last week. But don’t you kid yourself ILR can’t be retrospectively changed. It can.

Interesting thread.

The thought of Reform getting a majority vote is terrifying, but unlikely to happen in our FPTP system.

I don't think I'm just being optimistic when I say that it's extremely unlikely that their bullshit ideas about deporting people with ILR will ever come to fruition.

However, if you are living in the UK as a non-British citizen with ILR or settled status, I can absolutely understand wanting to get British citizenship for peace of mind.

It's a very expensive way to get peace of mind, though. And the only concrete advantages of citizenship over ILR/settled status are the ability to vote in general elections (you can already vote in local elections) and the ability to live abroad for as long as you want without losing citizenship - you would lose ILR/settled status if you lived outside the UK for too long.

My dcs are binationals and bicultural. Born in the U.K., have always lived there etc…. No one would think looking at them or hearing them they anything but British.
If you ask them which citizenship is theirs (as they did in the census - you can only choose ONE), one was British, the other my nationality. Despite having never lived there.

Don’t assume for other people if they feel British enough let alone 100% British. How you relate to the country you live in or belong to or are a citizen of is much more complex than just ‘you’ve lived here all your life therefore you’re british’

Yes, get it. It’s sensible anyway. Getting ILR is an absolute nightmare. But the citizenship application was a breeze in comparison. It’s an extra expense, but was such a relief.

And of course she’s agreeing with Reform - she’s a poster child for it - she’s saying that despite being born in the UK and wanting to live here forever her primary alligeance is to another country. That is the core of Reforms objection to immigrants.

She wants to never have her right to live here revoked. ILR is and should be always subjext to the potential to be revoked 🤷‍♀️

If she was a rare example, it’s fine. However if there are thousands, sorry hundreds of thousands, of people (which I don’t think is a ludicrous idea) who feel like that, then what kind of society do we have in this country?

She wants “all the rights” that go with ILR not citizenship.

Which is her right as a resident and contributor.

If she does not feel British and subsequently does not want a passport - how does that impact you?

She is not establishing a hierarchy of citizenships as she only has one.

And your approach to seeing yourself as equally both is not everybody’s way of doing things. I absolutely consider my Britishness more closely than my Australianness.

Saying she agrees with Reform is a wild interpretation.

I doubt Farage would be able to deport people with existing ILR so if you’re not keen on doing it, don’t. The country would fall apart. His so called future policies will just remain a figment of his imagination.

I have a dear friend I've known for 30+ years. She's French. She's lived in the UK since her 20s, married a British man (now divorced), they had 2 kids who are British. She never intends to live in France again, she doesn't have good memories of it.

After Brexit, she was asked to fill in a form, she can become a British citizen just by doing that, she has all legal rights to stay here. But she's refusing purely because she's annoyed at having to do it at all, she doesn't think she should need citizenship. She'll either fill the form in eventually or get it automatically on retirement but I genuinely don't understand her attitude.

She wouldn't have to give up her French citizenship and she has benefited de facto from UK citizenship for many years. If I were in her position, I would absolutely expect to make the commitment of taking out French citizenship alongside my British citizenship. I've had to really zip my mouth on this issue with my friend.

She's a first generation migrant, it's still less understandable that second generation migrants would not want citizenship of their country because of a cultural allegiance to their parents' country unless the parents never intended to stay and everyone always intended relocating to the original country.

I lived and worked in Scotland during the time of the independence referendum, so would have been entitled to Scottish citizenship had the vote been yes. I am English and I didn't support Scottish independence for a number of reasons. But had the vote been yes, I would have taken Scottish citizenship alongside my British citizenship because I would have been living and working in a nation who had made that decision, and I would have respected it.

Citizenship is a privilege, bringing rights and responsibilities and generations of migrants have made the commitment to become British, even where they have been discouraged or had an unknown future ahead of them and I hugely respect that.

I didn't vote for Brexit, but I think the EU system seems to have undermined the idea of national citizenship with a belief in borderless movement, picking and choosing to suit individuals.

Of course you should make the material commitment to become a British citizen unless your heritage identity means more, in which case, you will need to live with uncertainty.

We were in the UK for 19 years before naturalisation. And we have dual citizenship as I would never give up my birth one.

Citizenship can for many be a very emotional thing, regardless where you were born and how long you live in a place. So, if not needed, it doesn't have to be acquired.

We took British citizenship after Brexit because I didnt' trust and still don't trust politicians not to renegade on the Withdrawl Agreement. I also saw the pain of the Windrush scandal when a friend had to pay a fortune to get her mother's legal status checked out and confirmed. I wasn't prepared to have a digial footprint with a civil service who has plenty of IT scandals.

@Milliemoons If you can keep your birth citizenship and want to keep it, then I would definitely look into naturalisation.
If you can't keep it, I would make a hard decision to loose it in your case as your whole life is very different ot lots of other immigrants who come over as adults.

I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that being born in the UK + 10 years continuous residence as a minor qualifies you as a British citizen. You'd have to register, not naturalise.

Because British citizenship is not acquired simply by being born in this country. Unlike in the U.S.

Yea, and then they can hit you up for tax too.

I have an American friend living here for 50 years already. She still has to fill in her American tax return.

Of course it’s okay to want to live in the UK but not be a citizen. But it also means that you can’t expect to have the right to live in the UK for ever and ever and that residency rules won’t be changed.

The OP wants the right to live here forever without being a citizen. And her specific reason is because she doesn’t want to be British.

i don’t expect to be able to go and live in say say Mexico just because i want to.

You absolutely should. And I don’t buy into “people with settled status are safe bc of withdrawal agreement” rhetoric. I encouraged all my friends to apply.