Claiming British Citizenship

[ixion]

Im British and my Girlfriend holds Dual Nationality (Venezuelan-Italian) She claimed her Italian nationality from her Grandparents. She entered the U.K in October 2009 using her Italian passpord without any problems at passport control. She applied for her National Insurance within the first week and luckly found a job a week later. Since then has been in full time employment and has claimed no Benifits whatsoever. We are planning to get Engaged next year and our plans are for her to lose her Italian Nationality and become a British Citizen so she has more rights here and can hold a British Passport. However we have read so many conflicting accounts how she could go about in claiming her citizenship here. Could someone enlighten us how we can go about taking the first steps into becoming a British Citizen.

Thank you in advance

[John]

..... become a British Citizen so she has more rights here .....

Those extra rights are? Yes she could vote in UK Parliamentary elections, something currently denied to her, but what else?

As an EU Citizen she should already be on the Electoral Register, and is entitled to vote in local elections and European Parliamentary elections.

[ixion]

Sorry we were under the impression that there was more than just elections. However she would still like to become a British Citizen even though she can stay here without issues. What would she have do in order to go about it?

[heavens]

I could be wrong but i think she will have to live here 5 years before she can apply for naturalization.

[Jambo]

If not married to a British citizen and she keeps working in the UK, then she can apply for British Citizenship in October 2015.

If she is married to a British citizen, there are two options:

- The cheapest - Using EU regulations, she can apply in October 2014. This route is free (she only need to pay when applying for British Citizenship).

- The quickest - Using the UK immigration rules, she can apply after 3 years in the UK but this route will cost about £1500 (+ fee when applying for British Citizenship).