The good character requirement has been updated on 10th February 2025 to block some refugees from naturalising as British citizens if their entry to the UK was criminalised, i.e. they did not arrive with the required immigration documentation, such as a visa or electronic travel authorisation (ETA). This specifically applies to people who traveled to the UK via a ‘dangerous journey’, which would include, for example, crossing the Channel on a small boat, but not a commercial passenger aircraft.
These changes apply to anyone who applies for British citizenship as a refugee from 10th February 2025, regardless of how long ago they entered the UK in this manner.
It’s worth pointing out that it is not a blanket ban on citizenship for refugees who have arrived via irregular routes; it means that people ‘will normally’ be refused citizenship.
There are no changes for people who applied before 10th February 2025 and entered the UK without documentation: the guidance states that their application for naturalisation will be reviewed to assess whether the context of their migration journey should be disregarded for the purposes of the good character test.
It is important to note that while the guidance refers to people who entered the UK ‘illegally’, people seeking asylum have an international right under the Refugee Convention to enter another country through any route, regardless of whether that route of entry is criminalised, for the purpose of claiming asylum. Additionally, entry to the UK specifically without the required documentation for the purpose of claiming asylum was not criminalised in UK law until the Nationality and Border Act 2022. We do not yet know how this will affect people’s applications for British citizenship in practice.
What is the good character requirement?
The good character requirement refers to a set of criteria that Home Office caseworkers use to decide whether to grant someone settlement and naturalisation. It covers categories like criminality, financial soundness, immigration offences, and ‘conduciveness to the public good’.
In our Hostile Office campaign, we’ve been talking about the role of the good character requirement in creating a precarious sense of belonging for some migrants. A lot of the good character test is vague, where judgements are left up to caseworkers to decide how different criteria weigh up against each other. Factors like immigration offences and financial soundness including NHS debt and rough sleeping are particularly troublesome, as they punish people for the ways in which they are forced to migrate without safer routes for most, as well as being biased against people who have low income and are often cut off from state support.
We have raised the issue of the good character requirement before, particularly in relation to the practice of deprivation of citizenship, where requirements that deprivation, like naturalisation, be ‘conducive to the public good’ rely on arbitrary decisions made on intentionally vague criteria. We have heard numerous stories of people who have been refused citizenship based on having too many parking fines (this is referred to in the guidance). This shows how the State will use any trivial excuse to prevent people from gaining British citizenship.
The very existence of a “good character” test has been used to construct the image of the “good immigrant,” which is shaped by perceptions of worth and deservingness in the UK that is influenced by racism, including Islamophobia, and ableism. We outlined how this notion developed to shut out people from the former British Empire from British citizenship in our Hostile Office report.
The timing of these changes also coincides with the new Border Security Bill. Similarly, changes to the criminality aspect of the guidance that radically reduced the ability for people with long-spent convictions to ever gain citizenship were introduced around the ‘Illegal’ Migration Act 2023.
The Border Security Bill increases the criminalisation of people seeking asylum who are forced to cross the Channel in small boats, which will also affect how someone is scored in the good character test. Both, like the 2023 changes and the ‘Illegal’ Migration Act, are yet another round of anti-refugee measures introduced by the Government of the day.
We will work tirelessly against this change as well as continue our work to challenge cruel, racist ‘good character’ requirements.
Check out our Hostile Office campaign.