The most expensive citizenship costs in Europe are not putting people off: nearly a quarter of a million new Brits were naturalized in the year to June, the highest number since 2010. Becoming British remains an attractive proposition despite the extraordinary price.
First, one must secure a permanent residency permit known as “indefinite leave to remain,” costing £1,839 ($2,499). Full citizenship, including a mandatory ceremony, takes the total price to £5,065, without counting additional costs around visas, health fees and other administrative hurdles.
In many other European countries, the equivalent fee is only a few hundred euros.
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For Zilun Lin, a former University of Oxford student, the comparison comes as a surprise. “Wow, no way!” he says, during a phone interview. “That feels, I mean, it’s gutting.” A Portuguese national originally from China, Lin already enjoyed settled status in the UK but wanted to go further. “I do feel an inkling of identifying myself as more and more British,” says Lin, 25. “I genuinely quite like the UK.”
The decision was more a question of principle than personal finances. “I didn’t think that far ahead,” he says, referring to the cost. “It was more a case of ‘sticker shock’ when I found out about it later down the line.”
Despite earning a good salary as a data scientist, he adds: “For someone like me, it’s probably not good value.”
