European countries see upsurge in citizenship enquiries from British people

The Financial Times has reported that European countries including Germany, Hungary and Poland have seen a surge in citizenship enquiries from British people who don’t want to lose their status as citizens of a European Union member state.

The German embassy in London told the Financial Times that it has been receiving between 200 and 250 requests for information from British people on how to apply for German citizenship every day since the referendum result. Before the referendum, it received between 20 and 25 a day.

The Hungarian consulate in London told the newspaper that it has received 150 enquiries since the vote, compared to fewer than 10 during the rest of the year.

The Swedish Migration Agency in London has seen citizenship applications by UK citizens rise from an average of 20 a week to 316 in the two weeks after the referendum. In the same period, the Polish consulate in London received 350 queries from British people seeking Polish citizenship, compared to fewer than 100 formal applications in the whole of last year.

The German embassy said that even British people who clearly have no grounds for application (at least one German parent) are trying their luck.

The Italian embassy in London has received 500 email requests for information about Italian citizenship since the Brexit vote. UK citizens who can prove that they have at least one Italian grandparent will qualify.

“Many families moved from Italy to the UK because of World War Two, and they tried to conceal their Italian identity after they arrived. They spoke only English and some even changed their surnames,” Francesco Ruiz, a spokesman for the Italian embassy, told the Financial Times. “But now many British people seem to rediscover their Italian roots. Most of them would never have applied if there would not have been a Leave vote.”

Ireland allows anybody who has one grandparent born in Ireland to apply for Irish citizenship. Ireland’s foreign minister has appealed for UK citizens (including those in Northern Ireland) not to rush to apply because of fears that the country’s passport office will be overwhelmed.

For years the world’s most valuable, a British passport will soon be nowhere near as useful as a Maltese passport.