Petition Reverse guidance stopping refugees gaining citizenship

The 'Nationality: good character requirement' guidance was updated on 10 February 2025, preventing many refugees from ever becoming British citizens. We urge ministers to urgently reverse this policy or update the guidance to confirm refugees are exempt.

More details

The guidance states that anyone who entered the UK illegally/having made a dangerous journey will “normally” be refused British citizenship.

Many refugees who entered the UK through irregular means will therefore be prevented from ever becoming British - no matter how long they live in the UK or the contributions they make.

We believe this policy breaches Article 31 and Article 34 of the Refugee Convention.

Sign this petition

885 signatures

Progress of the petition towards its next target: 885 of 10,000 signatures required to get a government response

Show on a map the geographical breakdown of signatures by constituency

10,000 signatures required to get a government response

At 10,000 signatures...

At 10,000 signatures, government will respond to this petition

At 100,000 signatures...

At 100,000 signatures, this petition will be considered for debate in Parliament

Share this petition

Created by Caroline Sykes
Deadline 12 November 2025 All petitions run for 6 months
Get petition data (json format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of Parliament. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.