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More Brits want Swedish citizenship since Brexit: report

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
More Brits want Swedish citizenship since Brexit: report
File photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

The number of British applications for Swedish citizenship has increased sharply since the UK’s referendum decision to leave the EU.

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1,616 Brits applied for Swedish citizenship in 2016, up from 511 the previous year, according to figures from the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket), which processes the applications.

The number of British applications for Swedish citizenship in June 2016 – the month of the UK’s referendum over continued EU membership, in which it voted to leave the union – was 310. In the same month the previous year, 41 applications were made.

The trend of increased applications has continued in 2017, with 1,718 applications for Swedish citizenship received by British nationals up to the beginning of November.

Almost 3,000 British applications for Swedish citizenship have been received in total since the Brexit vote on June 23rd last year.

Sweden’s embassy in London receives daily enquiries from both Swedes and Brits concerned about the outcome of Brexit, reports news agency TT.

“Common questions to the embassy are whether it is possible to get dual citizenship or whether you lose Swedish citizenship if you apply for British,” said Sophie Tzelidis, head of administration at the embassy’s Consular Affairs and Migration unit.

“It goes a bit up and down. It depends to some extent on whether anything is happening in Brussels or whether the British have made a statement, we then get more queries about citizenship,” Tzelidis continued.

“Swedes do not think they will be thrown out [of the UK]… it is more not knowing what status EU citizens will get after the UK leaves the EU,” Tzelidis said.

Some Swedes who are long-term UK residents also face the complicated situation of having lost their Swedish citizenship because they have failed to follow registration rules.

Most of those contacting the embassy are those who have been settled in the UK for a long time, according to the report.

Sweden permitted dual citizenship in 2001.

READ ALSO: The Local's guide to applying for residency and citizenship in Sweden

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