Applications for British citizenship (2) (FOI)

​​Request

We would like to request the following information please: how many applications for (British) citizenship (naturalization vs registration) there have been over the previous years since COVID (2020), by year, their outcome (successful or not) and the average (as well as minimum and maximum) time from application until final decision.

thank you.

Response

All applications submitted for naturalisation and registration as a British citizen are initially assessed within three weeks of receipt and original documents returned to the applicant.   Applications that do not meet the requirements are returned, normally with a refund, at this stage.  The number of these applications is currently not recorded in a way that enables data to be extracted. Therefore Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

The published processing times for naturalisation applications is currently approximately 18 months (pre-Covid this was approximately 12 months).

Published processing times for registration applications is currently approximately 12 months (pre-Covid this was approximately 6 months).

Applications may take longer to processes in cases where unforeseen complications arise, for example, an applicant’s non-compliance with Income Tax or Social Security payments, issues with biometrics, availability of resources, or where the applicant relocates to another CTA jurisdiction.

The attached table provides a summary of the number of applications and average processing time.

​ Table.pdf​

The Crown Dependencies (Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man) are reliant on the Home Office to complete assessment of the application at various points during the process which requires manual intervention by a UK Officer. The processing of citizenship applications since 2020 has been impacted by Brexit and other global events (e.g. COVID & Ukraine War) that have seen Home Office and Jersey resources diverted to deal with increased workloads elsewhere in the immigration system.

The Crown Dependencies are working closely with the Home Office to address processing times and deliver a more streamlined technical solution that relies less on manual intervention. It is anticipated that this will be delivered in Q1 2025 and will bring processing times back down to pre-Brexit levels.

Article applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.​