Latest news with #BritishCitizenship
Scotsman
23-07-2025
- Lifestyle
- Scotsman
Free access to GoCitizen for library members
Members of Edinburgh Libraries now have free access to GoCitizen. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... This helps users prepare for the Life in the UK test or British Citizenship test. GoCitizen includes an online version of the latest official study materials licensed from the Home Office, plus hundreds of practice test questions in the same format as the official test. Let anyone you know who might be preparing for one of these tests that they can access this help free through the library. It can be used from home or the library. All you need is library membership to use it – join at any of our local libraries or online. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Already a citizen? Have a go for fun, you might be surprised what you don't know! Not a member of the library? Visit any of our libraries to sign up for a membership card or join online today. For any questions regarding this service please contact [email protected]
The Guardian
23-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Travelling to Trump's US is a low-level trauma – here's what Africans can do about it
Hello and welcome to The Long Wave. This week, I reflect on the increasing difficulty of travel and immigration for many from the African continent, and how one country is plotting a smoother path. I have just come back from holiday, and I'm still not used to how different travel is when not using an African passport. My British citizenship, which I acquired about five years ago, has transformed not only my ability to travel at short notice but it has eliminated overnight the intense stress and bureaucratic hurdles involved in applying for visas on my Sudanese passport. It is difficult to explain just how different the lives of those with 'powerful' passports are to those without. It is an entirely parallel existence. Gaining permission to travel to many destinations is often a lengthy, expensive and sickeningly uncertain process. A tourist visa to the UK can cost up to £1,000, in addition to the fee for private processing centres that handle much of Europe's visa applications abroad. And then there is the paperwork: bank statements, employment letters, academic records, certified proof of ownership of assets, and birth and marriage certificates if one is travelling to visit family. This is a non-exhaustive list. For a recent visa application for a family member, I submitted 32 documents. It may sound dramatic but such processes instil a sort of low-level trauma, after submitting to the violation of what feels like a bureaucratic cavity search. And all fees, whatever the decision, are non-refundable. Processing times are in the hands of the visa gods – it once took more than six months for me to receive a US visa. By the time it arrived, the meeting I needed to attend for work had passed by a comically long time. Separation and severed relationships It's not only travel for work or holiday that is hindered by such high barriers to entry. Relationships suffer. It is simply a feature of the world now that many families in the Black diaspora sprawl across continents. Last month Trump restricted entry to the US to nationals from 20 countries, half of which are in Africa. The decision is even crueler when you consider that it applies to countries such as Sudan, whose civil war has prompted many to seek refuge with family abroad. That is not just a political act of limiting immigration, it is a deeply personal one that severs connections between families, friends and partners. Family members of refugees from those countries have also been banned, so they can't visit relatives who have already managed to emigrate. The International Rescue Committee warned the decision could have 'far-reaching impacts on the lives of many American families, including refugees, asylees and green card holders, seeking to be reunified with their loved ones'. A global raising of barriers The fallout of this Trump order is colossal. There are students who are unable to graduate. Spouses unable to join their partners. Children separated from their parents. It's a severe policy, but shades of it exist elsewhere by other means. The UK recently terminated the rights of foreign care workers and most international students to bring their children and partners to the country. And even for those who simply want to have their family visit them, access is closed to all except those who can clear the high financial hurdles and meet the significant burdens of proof to show that either they can afford to maintain their visitors or that they will return to their home countries. Sign up to The Long Wave Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world after newsletter promotion It was 10 years before I – someone with fairly stable employment and a higher-education qualification – satisfied the Home Office's requirements and could finally invite my mother to visit. I broke down when I saw her face at arrivals, realising how hard it had been for both of us; the fact that she had not seen the life I had built as an adult. Compare this draconian measure to some countries in the Gulf, such as Saudi Arabia, that have an actual visa category, low-cost and swiftly processed, for parental visits and residency. A new African model But as some countries shut down, others are opening up. This month, Kenya removed visa requirements for almost all African citizens wanting to visit. Here, finally, there is the sort of regional solidarity that mirrors that of the EU and other western countries. Since it boosts African tourism and makes Kenya an inviting destination for people to gather at short notice for professional or festive reasons, it's a smart move. But it also sends an important signal to a continent embattled by visa restrictions and divided across borders set by colonial rule. We are not just liabilities, people to be judged on how many resources they might take from a country once allowed in. We are also tourists, friends, relatives, entrepreneurs and, above all, Africans who have the right to meet and mingle without the terror, and yes, contempt, of a suspicious visa process. If the African diaspora is being separated abroad, there is at least now a path to the option that some of us may reunite at home. To receive the complete version of The Long Wave in your inbox every Wednesday, please subscribe here.
BBC News
09-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
More funds needed for London Chagos arrivals, says council
More money is needed to help cope with the number of Chagos Islanders moving to the UK, according to a London Council said it had seen more than 400 Chagossians - who have British citizenship - arrive via nearby Heathrow Airport in the past year, with the cost of supporting them totalling hundreds of thousands of May 2025, the UK government signed a long-planned deal to hand the Chagos Islands to council wants the government to "do the right thing" and provide more funding to cover costs, including temporary accommodation. The government said it was providing funding where Chagossian arrivals were "creating immediate local pressures". The residents of the Chagos Islands, a British overseas territory, were evicted between 1967 and 1973 to create a joint UK-US military granddaughter of one of those residents was in tears as she thought about her homeland's history when she landed at Heathrow."My grandmother was a British Chagossian," said Rebecca Philippe. "Fifty years ago, she was uprooted from her island, and we have seen her suffering. "By seeing her suffering, we suffered too, with her. Unfortunately she is no longer with us. But we are here, not only for our rights but to honour her."Ms Philippe said she had to hide her British Chagossian identity when living in Mauritius because anyone who criticised Mauritian sovereignty risked a prison sentence."We have a penal code on our heads. We can't protest or do anything to fight for our rights, so we feel powerless there," she said. "Here I can tell people who I am, and there's no more fear inside me."A report by Human Rights Watch found that many Chagossians displaced to Mauritius continued to suffer poverty, stigma and discrimination. More than 100 Chagossians arrived at Heathrow Airport in one week in May, the same month the UK government signed the deal to hand the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, Hillingdon Council arrivals did not have accommodation plans and needed housing British passport holders, Chagossians are allowed to enter the UK but do not qualify for the support that refugees and asylum seekers council said it helped those who had arrived to open a UK bank account and apply for Universal Credit, and provided bedding and a prepaid card for essentials. It said Chagossians went through a similar process to anyone else in the borough when it came to housing support. The council said the arrivals were placing an unsustainable demand on services, and cost more than £508,000 between July 2024 and March has forecast an annual cost of £1.2m going forward, as more Chagos Islanders global population of Chagossians is reported to be around 10,000, with many of them living in Mauritius, the Seychelles or the UK."It's the government's policy on the Chagos Islands which is creating this surge in people coming to Heathrow," said Steve Tuckwell, the council's cabinet member for planning, housing and growth. "Heathrow's in Hillingdon and that's where the burden sits. So the government needs to do their bit to make it fairer for Hillingdon taxpayers."Mr Tuckwell said many of the Chagossian arrivals have children, and the council had a legal responsibility to find temporary accommodation for families with dependants. The council added that the government would only cover the costs incurred for up to 10 days after arrival.A spokesperson from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "We are giving Hillingdon Council funding to support Chagossian arrivals where arrival numbers are creating immediate local pressures."Government guidance is clear that people must make their own accommodation arrangements before they travel."
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
US actress Julianne Moore reveals plans to permanently move to the UK with husband Bart Freundlich as she joins huge list of stars fleeing America
Julianne Moore has revealed plans to permanently move to the UK with her husband Bart Freundlich. The actress, 64, was born in North Carolina but gained British citizenship because her late mother, Anne, was Scottish. And now she could join a huge list of stars fleeing the US with some citing Trump as the reason they want to leave Appearing on the Capital Breakfast with her Echo Valley co-star Sydney Sweeney on Tuesday, Julianne opened up about her plans to move to the UK. Host Chris Stark asked: 'Julianne, you're a British citizen, is that right?' From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. Julianne replied: 'Yeah, I have a passport,' before a shocked Sydney said: 'No way, I didn't know that!' 'Yeah, my mother was from Scotland, so I have a British passport,' Julianne explained. Chris said: 'That's so cool.' 'I know it is cool, right?; Julianne added. 'So, what's it like being back? Could you see yourself maybe coming and living here full-time?' Chris asked. Julianne revealed: 'I can actually, my husband and I have talked about that sometimes. It could be kind of fun. 'I've worked here a lot and I'm really comfortable here. I've been working here, gosh, probably since the nineties.' Radio co-host Jordan North asked: 'Really?' Sian Welby added: 'What since Hannibal?' 'Yeah, since before that actually,' Julianne laughed before continuing: 'Once I was coming into the UK and somebody told me I was in the wrong line and I was like 'no I'm not!' In March, Courtney Love became the latest star to reveal she's becoming a British citizen, because of 'frightening 'Donald Trump's return to the White House. Courtney, who was married to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain from 1992 until his suicide in 1994, says she's looking to permanently relocate in the UK due to her dissatisfaction with the Trump administration in the US. Speaking at the Royal Geographical Society in London, she said: 'I'm really glad I'm here. 'It's so great to live here. I'm finally getting my British citizenship in six months. I get to be a citizen - I'm applying, man! Can't get rid of me!' The remarks drew rapturous applause from the London audience. Courtney went on to criticize the US President and his inner circle, admitting: 'In terms of Trump, and particularly this group... it's like emperor-core - like, [they're] wearing million-dollar watches. Celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi, designer Tom Ford, Ryan Gosling and his wife Eva Mendes are among those who have fled America for the UK 'Emperor-core is going on at Mar-a-Lago. It's frightening now. It's like cyanide now.' Courtney, who has a 32-year-old daughter, Frances Cobain, with Kurt, has been living in London for several years, having moved to the capital from Los Angeles in 2019. Courtney has been vocal of her love of London for some time, saying in 2017: 'I know I'm going to end up there. 'I know what neighbourhood I'm going to end up in, and I know that I want to be on the Thames. I subscribe to this magazine called Country Life, which is just real-estate porn and fox hunting. It's amazing.' She is not the first celebrity to move to the UK since the reelection of Trump, with the woke stars being dubbed the 'Donald Dashers'. The so-called 'Donald Dash' has been backed up by Home Office figures this week which revealed that applications for UK citizenship soared in the last quarter of 2024, rising 40 per cent year on year. In fact more than 6,100 US citizens applied last year, the most since records began two decades ago and 26 per cent more than in 2023. Ellen DeGeneres and her wife Portia de Rossi put their California mansion up for sale after the election results came in and kickstarted their 'retirement' in the UK, with sources alleging the 'US doesn't like her because of her sexual preferences'. Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling were already living in the UK and are now planning to stay put, a sentiment echoed by British-American actress Minnie Driver, who returned to London after nearly three decades of living in Los Angeles. Ugly Betty star America was allegedly spotted checking out schools in west London - after saying she wanted to leave the US when Trump was elected. One Notting Hill estate agent, who revealed the amount of wealthy American families they are moving in has 'skyrocketed' since Trump, told MailOnline: 'We moved a Marvel actress into a house very near here in the last week.' Eva Longoria, a Texas native who has been living abroad for work, is taking permanent residency in Mexico and Spain with her husband and son in order to 'escape' her 'dystopian' homeland.
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Can you pass the British citizenship test? Try and answer these questions
Immigration is a controversial subject that is regularly debated. Prime Minister Keir Starmer recently said that we face becoming an "island of strangers". It is a comment that many found wrong, but others may have agreed with. And now there are promises from the Labour government to tighten up immigration rules and make it more difficult to live and work in the United Kingdom. READ MORE: Legal age for children to stay home alone as summer holidays approach READ MORE: ASDA, Morrisons and Matalan customers told 'return' products One requirement of that process has been taking the 'Life in the UK' test, which can put you on the pathway to becoming a British citizen, reports Manchester Evening News. To take the test, you have to have been living in the UK for a certain period of time, not have any criminal convictions, and pass an English language test. The test consists of questions on a mixture of subjects, including culture, history, and customs, and you get 45 minutes to take it. While some questions are pretty straightforward, others would require a bit of background knowledge and research. You can take the test as many times as it takes to pass, but each attempt costs £50. Generally the pass rate has hovered around the 80% mark. To pass, you must correctly answer 18 questions, or 75%, and the results are given immediately at the end of the test. Click here if the test has not appeared below.
