Brexit: UK citizens ask for foreign citizenship even in Hungary
The number of those UK citizens who asked for nationality in an EU member state has been increasing steeply since 2017. According to index.hu, in the Central-European region, Hungary is the most popular among them. They added that based on BBC’s Saturday report 12,994 people received citizenship from these states.
German citizenship is the most popular
According to BBC, they received figures from 17 states, because in other cases they are not ready for publication. The growth is remarkably high: in 2016 there were only 5,025 UK citizens who received foreign citizenship. Besides, this number was only 1,800 in 2015 and 1,594 in 2014.
In fact, the most common nationality is German. According to BBC, the number of those receiving citizenship from Berlin was only 594 in 2015 while 7,493 in 2017. Furthermore, 1,518 UK citizens received French and 1,381 a Belgian passport. Fourth is Sweden on the list with 1,203.
An applicant, Paul Petty told BBC that he feels like Europe is pulling apart a bit.
“I want to remain part of the EU.”
– he added.
In Central-Europe Hungary is the most popular
Interestingly, in Central-Europe Hungary is the most popular country. In fact, 29 UK citizen asked for and received Hungarian citizenship last year. In the Czech Republic, this number is 26, in Poland 7 and Slovakia only 1.
Of course, this is important because after the Brexit dual – or multiple – citizenship
allows them to travel, live and work in the EU.
Moreover, they may be able to pass these on their children. Nevertheless, most of them retained their British citizenship.
After Brexit, it will be more difficult or even impossible
BBC highlighted that for example, Germany only allows dual nationality only with EU states.
According to the latest statistics, there are 3.8 million foreign citizens in the UK while
there are 1.5 million British citizens living in EU states.
According to the plans of the British government, EU citizens and their family members who, by 31 December 2020, have been continuously resident in the UK for five years will be eligible for “settled status” enabling them to stay indefinitely. In fact, they only have to fill out a short questionnaire.
However, British foreign minister David Sajid complained about a hearing that in this case, reciprocity does not work with EU member states. He meant that they are not as generous with the UK citizens as the British government thinks they should be.
Source: index.hu
