I think that the Life in the UK test is a missed opportunity - while on the one hand it could have provided the impetus for would-be citizens to learn about some of the principles of life here that they might find useful, it has instead been turned in to a quiz on the useless (who pays for school uniforms) to the apparently wrong. The fees are outrageously high, but then again, anyone successfully navigating the process will in some respects have gained a crash course in life in the UK - prepare to be separated from your earnings under flimsy pretexts, and expect to receieve rather less than what you pay for.
Congratulations on becoming a citizen, though!

when you put it like that, it sounds like an accurate portrayal of daily British life.

I am an American expat and have an Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) visa via marriage to a British citizen. Your experience confirms my decision not to become a British Citizen. I had to take the Life in the UK test to get my visa, and I also have a Ph.D. in British History; the test was a multiple-choice farce. I had to chuckle when I was told "well done" for not getting any of the questions "incorrect." My costs to get permission from the government to marry (£130, a fee which has been shown in the High Courts to be illegal as it contravenes human rights), further leave to remain (£300), and Indefinite Leave to Remain (£750) also do not make me inclined to spend another £851 to get a paperweight or in some cases, I heard, a commemorative citizenship mug.

The experience for a US citizen is different to that of a Swiss. You encountered most of the bureaucracy when applying for your visas and ILR, so going for citizenship is really a no-brainer unless you cannot afford the fee. You are lucky that you can return to the US for up to 2 years without having your ILR cancelled; in the opposite situation your wife/husband would have his/her green card cancelled unless permission was sought from USCIS before leaving the country!

A Swiss citizen does not need approval to live in the UK (although Mr Thvoz would have required permission when he first arrived), therefore needs to prove that he qualifies in retrospect.

(And ILR is not a visa - it is "leave to remain" in the UK. A visa is permission to enter.)

"(And ILR is not a visa - it is "leave to remain" in the UK. A visa is permission to enter.)"
Er, no it isn't. Permission to enter is entry clearance. Permission to stay is leave to remain. Both were formerly officially known as and still colloquially known as visas.

A Benton not sure when you went through the 'processing' but I too have had to keep paying out for my US wife's visas. We got the indefinite leave to remain visa a few months ago at the cost of nearly £1000, the fees for the visas etc leading up to this over the last four years have run into the thousands as well. All in all the visa system in this country is a huge cash cow for the government

I thought one became a citizen by marriage, assuming the partner is already a UK national. I never had to have visas for my wife who was a foreigner. Has that changed? One needs to have a visa in almost every country apart from the EU countries.

so so wrong. my wife is American.

£400 for a fiance visa
£600 to convert this to a spousal visa 3 months later
£1000 to convert this to indefinite leave to remain 2 years later
£800 to become a citizen a year later

each of these steps has required a binder of information, bank statements, payslips, phone bills, utility bills, photos and pages of forms.

its because of daily mail naivety like this that laws become tougher and tougher. i assume your wife is from an EU country...

THIS. I'm American expat with Brit spouse, and currently ramping up for the grand payoff (sorry, 'fee'), and test taking. It's ridiculous.

My wife is Russian and whenever she wishes to visit the UK with me and our three children (all British citizens) she has to go through the same routine of describing her itinary, reasons for her visit, how much money she intends to bring with her for support during her stay, her sponsor (me) and her relationship, if any, to her sponsor and so on and so on. She is also told in no uncertain terms that she must not overstay the period stated in her visa (usually 6 months). On one occasion, whilst my wife was waiting to be interviewed at the Moscow British consul as regards her visa application, a consulate official overheard me discussing the arrival in the coming year of our last child. At that time, my wife's third pregnancy had only recently been confirmed. The official suddenly demanded if my wife was travelling to the UK with the intent of bearing a child there, which apparently would have complicated the issuing of a visa if that had been the case.

No, the spouse of a British citizen does not automatically gain British citizenship by marriage - at least not if she's Russian she doesn't.

The British Nationality Act 1981 removed acquisition of citizenship by marriage, although I think marriage reduces the time required for naturalisation (eg, from 5 to 2 years). Fortunately, my wife is an Italian citizen, and thus does not need to pay for visas and fees as if she were (say) one of her Majesty's subjects in Canada, Australia or New Zealand. I'd started to sort out the naturalisation documents in 1999, but put it aside because I'd have had to send in my passport as well as hers, and I was travelling abroad quite often. What a mistake! When I next investigated, there were many further requirements (such as the life in the UK part), the fee had become £850, and the supporting information voluminous.

I'd like to add to this that unfortunately, some European countries are following the UK's lead, for instance France, where you used to be able to become a French citizen by marriage. It all changed in 2006 and now you have to have been married to a French person for 4 years in order to apply for citizenship. So if I were to marry my Welsh boyfriend, he would stay British and I would remain French! I am not prepared to pay that amount of money to become British when I know full well that my English and my knowledge of the UK is better than most British citizens! But I'm one of the fortunate EU citizens who don't have to pay any fees, so I do feel for those who do.

3 years actually, soon to become 5 with Theresa May's new rules.

conan, yes it has all changed. you can thank al queda. spouses no longer have the right to reside in uk- though not sure if this conflicts with EU human rights legislation.

I think it does conflict with EU regulations. I remember a few years ago there sprang up in Russia an organization of British expats with Russian spouses who wished to agitate for the right afforded to other EU nationals and their non-EU citizen spouses. For example, if I were a German citizen, I could just up sticks to Germany with my wife and children any time I wished. Not so as regards moving to the UK with my wife and family.

EU free movement rules don't apply to British citizens in the UK, because they have not taken advantage of free movement.

Now, if you're a German citizen, you can move to the UK with your Russian wife any time you wish with NO fees except for the final naturalisation process. Likewise a British citizen can move to Germany with his Russian wife on payment of a nominal fee.

But a British citizen wanting to come to the UK with his Russian wife will fall afoul of Theresa May's spiteful rules - unless they both go to live in Germany for 6 months first! Then they can come to the UK and be regarded as a free mover under the European Economic Area regulations.

Congratulations on nicely highlighting this farce of official arrogance, ignorance and incompetence, a delightful facet of the UK's increasingly dysfunctional relationship between the state/establishment and Her Majesty's subjects....

Hilarious - but scary. Welcome to the UK, Seth.

I'm 65, English to the core (well one side of my family goes back to the Romans we think, and the other side has been traced to at least 15th century) but I would probably fail the test going on what I've read. Also I have no idea if we have a mayor or who does what on our council - what's more I don't much care.

Given that every now and then a politician with time on his hands tries to start a debate about what 'Britishness' is but never succeeds in getting a clear answer, I wonder how that can be synthesised into a test. If you ask 50 million Brits you will get 50 million different ideas.

Just buy the book and have a read. There are mock tests available online for free.

Granted, this seems farcical. However, becoming a naturalised citizen of most countries is extremely difficult. I wonder how easy it is for those not born in Switzerland to become Swiss citizens? I know from personal experience that it is nigh on impossible to gain Japanese citizenship unless your father was born Japanese. This includes a sizeable "Korean" population, who are now 3rd or even 4th generation "alien residents" with no legal protection or voting rights.
The UK isn't perfect, but thankfully, we are still more welcoming than the vast majority of the rest of the world.

( It would be helpful if the test did actually include some factually correct answers though. I have tried that test and it is embarrassingly awful. )

15,000 does not seem very many naturalisations for a country with a population of 150 million compared to the UK with a population of only 67 million it is tiny by comparison.

...and of course the availability of state benefits...

You quote the JP government website as a check on official stats? In your own words, "really?" I have a fondness for Japan and for many Japanese people, but I think you're the first that would actually believe the Japanese government's own statistics.

That's great that they've sorted it out then and that Japan is now such a welcoming country for gaijin.

Thanks for this message. To be honest, I did feel there was a bit of an attack element in your posts, but I guess that's part and parcel of the context. ( The written word can often be more forceful than the spoken word as the nuance and intonation can be misconstrued )

I imagine mine could come across that way too, which was not my original intention. I was merely trying to point out that the UK is not the only country where naturalisation is difficult. It's a criticism I hear a lot about here and yet I can't think of many countries off-hand where it's easy. I used Japan as my own experience. It was the reason I left.

I'll check out the site you mentioned. Thanks for posting.

Yes. Really I do. I lived and worked in Japan for three years. I can assure you from personal experience of Korean Japanese friends in Nagoya, that this is much more serious than an urban myth.
If it's no longer "impossible" then I am very glad that Japan has progressed, but I can assure you from my own experience of Japanese immigration, whilst living and working legally in the country, the bureaucracy we had to undergo to renew working permits, made the original poster's experience in the UK seem like a walk in the park.

Citizenship was extremely hard to get unless you were the offspring of a Japanese male.

I am sincerely happy to bow to your experience that things have improved yet I know of no-one who can agree with you. This includes three friends of mine who are partnered with Japanese and another who had to leave Japan after her divorce, whilst her Japanese ex-husband remains a British citizen.

It is almost impossible for those born elsewhere to gain Swiss citizenship; Mr Thvoz is lucky that he has the option to become a British citizen.

Mr Thvoz instead of whining, could you just be grateful that you've been given something that your native country routinely refuses those living in Switzerland who are in the same situation you were, living and working in a country but at risk of being thrown out at any time.

Well I was not born in Switzerland and I applied for and got a Swiss citizenship after 12 years of sojourning in Geneva. So, Mr. Thvoz is entirely right to point out the absurdity of British bureaucracy. Perhaps it would also interest you to know that over 40% of the inhabitants of Geneva Canton are not Swiss-born.

I wish you had occasion to go to a British Consulate to ask for some services, then you would understand and appreciate what Mr. Thvoz is talking about. I find the account he gave completely honest and wittily acerbic. The one that really made me laugh belly deep is the 'form-filling' exercise with its contradictory instructions spread over many pages.

As you can see, Mr. Thvoz is a well educated man. What he intends to point out by writing this story is to highlight the difficulty of getting British citizenship even for those who met all the prerequisites of the immigration office.

Bearing in mind the difficulty and the costs of this exercise to get our citizenship, how come there are so many undesirables here who have it?

you appear to be confusing difficulty of a process with its efficacy.

I'll let your "undesirables" comment pass.

Sorry, but you are confused. I never brought sex into this.

If he wasn't whining then you wouldn't believe he was really British.

How true! Welcome to Britain Mr Thvoz, you'll fit right in!

Since when is pointing out defficiencies whining? You should congratulate him on his determination and patience. Typically British attitude Mr Colwood to deflect the discussion to Swiss naturalization, the article is simply about a British shambles

Such a perfectly British comment from Colwood. Bravo, cream of ignorance, wonder of your fantasy World. I wish so hard I had been born in such a diverse, tolerant, multi-cultural, knowledgeable, fair, and democratic country, where money, race and relationships dictate what you'll become, and all evil is kept at bay beyond the waters (with the notorious exception of Wales, and Scotland, naturally).
Beati pauperes spiritu. Amen

For God's sake, the man is, quite blatantly, vastly more literate and educated than you; he's spent all his life in the UK, and despite this (or probably precisely because he is so untypically cultured for a Brit) he dares not have a poke at his country, because he's not of pure English descent?!

What puzzles me is why he's decided to stay in the UK, in a country that will always see him as a stranger... all his life. UK passport or not.

Ridiculous-- the process for Swiss citizenship is a complicated one, yes, but that is due to it being an entirely different process involving the community-- much like the Swiss system of cantons and referenda works. The British system is clearly convoluted and not even representative of British history... unlike the Swiss system.

Almost impossible....USA TOO.

I am an American who is married to a serving member of the Royal Air Force and I have also found the immigration process completely ridiculous. I too have had to scrimp and save every penny in order to pay for the insane and unexpected increase in processing fees. I currently have indefinite leave to remain but if my husband is ever posted outside the UK, I will not be able to go with him unless I too go through the naturalization process. You would think that the government would be more supportive of their military personnel and their international spouses. Sadly, they just see us as a money making opportunity.

actually the purpose of all this is to a) reduce immigration because levels have become excessive (even immigrants think so) and the knock on costs for welfare, health, schooling have become crippling and politically unsustainable; and b) keep out islamic terrorists. to do his they have raised the fees to exorbitant levels to discourage applications from certain parts of the world. they have increased the number of hoops to jump through, again principally to discourage immigrants from certain parts of the world. why do you think they want to know the name of every country you have been in in the last 10 years or why your applications will be rejected unless you can prove it by holding on to your old passports? in the old days if a one-legged red indian was seen escaping from multiple crime scenes then the police would overtly be searching for all one-legged red indians. now, because of something called ethnic profiling, under EU law that cannot be done. which is why immigration has got a lot tougher for everyone and why everyone has to wait in line for 3 hours to get through heathrow.

There are so many things wrong with this post I don't know where to start. Firstly, ethnic profiling does NOT mean that police can't take known descriptions of suspects into account. If a black person in a white top is seen robbing a bank then a black person in a white top will be searched for. The ban on ethnic profiling merely means that police are not allowed to assume that the bank has been robbed by a black person. Seems reasonable. It also has nothing to do with 'EU law'.

Suddenly changing the naturalisation fee has NOTHING to do with preventing Islamic terrorism. This conception is wrong on so many levels. Principally: any global terror network worth its salt could afford to pay 700 quid to make someone a British citizen. Many Middle-Eastern countries are extremely wealthy so I don't know what you mean by 'certain parts of the world'. Also: what advantage does British citizenship hold in orchestrating a terror attack? What kind of convaluted terror plot would require a British passport? Finally, the only Islamic terrorism we've seen pulled off on British soil was conducted by people who were born here. No naturalisation required.

I really can't bring myself to address the remaining points in your post but I suggest you research any points you wish to make in the future. I will also direct you to google Oxford University migration observatory which shows that immigration has net economic benefit overall.

Is "Andrew" a common woman's name in the US?

Why should military personel be get preferential treatment over the rest of the tax payers in the UK?

Is that meant to be "funny"?

Yes, but if you're English I expect you yo take it in as offensive a way possible, that would be normal here.

Oh and before you start, i'm English.

What century are you living in mate? Newsflash: gay people exist.
I do agree with the second part of your comment though.