Contact UK Visas and Immigration for help

British citizenship and nationality

Get help if you have a question about British citizenship or another type of British nationality - for example, if you’re a British national (overseas).

Check if you’re eligible for British citizenship

You can:

check if you can become a British citizen and find out how to apply
check if you’re already a British citizen - for example, if you were born in the UK

There are different ways to become a British citizen. For example, you can:

apply if you have a British parent (sometimes called ‘citizenship by descent’)
apply if you’re living in the UK and married to a British citizen
apply if you’re living in the UK with indefinite leave to remain or EU settled status

If you’re not eligible for British citizenship and want to come to the UK to visit, work, study or live with family, you can find out how to get a UK visa.

UKVI contact centre staff cannot give you advice on whether you’re eligible for citizenship or a visa and cannot check your application before you submit it. You can get help with finding an immigration adviser.

Check when you’ll get a decision

You’ll usually get a decision on your citizenship application within 6 months - some applications can take longer.

If yours will take longer you’ll be told before 6 months have passed.

You can email UKVI’s Citizenship and Nationality Enquiries team if both of the following apply:

your decision has taken longer than 6 months
you’ve not been contacted about your application - check your email’s spam or junk folders for emails from UKVI

Citizenship and Nationality Enquiries team nationalityenquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk

The Citizenship and Nationality Enquiries team cannot track the progress of your application before the 6 months has passed.

Book your citizenship test or citizenship ceremony

You can book and cancel your citizenship test online (called the ‘Life in the UK’ test).

You need to contact your local council to organise your citizenship ceremony if your citizenship application is successful.

If you already have British citizenship

Find out how to:

Contact the Citizenship and Nationality Enquiries team

You can contact UKVI’s Citizenship and Nationality Enquiries team if you have a different question about British citizenship or nationality.

Citizenship and Nationality Enquiries
nationalityenquiries@homeoffice.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)300 790 6268 - select option 2
Monday to Thursday, 9am to 4:45pm UK local time
Friday, 9am to 4:30pm UK local time
Find out about call charges

If you cannot contact UK 0300 numbers, use +44 (0)203 875 4669.

If you’ve not had a response, check your email’s spam or junk folder before contacting UKVI again.