00:00The Americans are coming. To Britain, that is. More U.S. citizens than ever applied for British
00:06citizenship last year. The all-time high of 8,790 applicants came in the first year of
00:14Donald Trump's second term. Immigration lawyers say the rise came as a result of a desire for
00:20global mobility as well as concerns about the political situation in the United States.
00:25Americans can apply for U.K. citizenship via two routes. The first is called naturalization,
00:32and that's for people who have legally resided in the country for five years as well as one year
00:37under settled status. Naturalization is also for people who married Brits. The second route is
00:44through something called registration, and that is for certain Commonwealth citizens or, say, children
00:49whose parents were British but who were born abroad. The jump will come as welcome news to the U.K.
00:54government, which is trying to spur growth at home. It's also trying to both limit migration more
01:00broadly while attracting high earners and those with high educational attainment. Immigration experts
01:06say U.S. applicants for British citizenship tend to tick both boxes. Still, analytics company Gallup
01:14found that Britain tops any other country in its opposition to more immigration, with 21 percent of
01:22Britons naming it as their top concern. Having more Americans around will no doubt change population
01:27dynamics, perhaps in unexpected ways.
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