The UK Ancestry visa service (also known as a British Ancestry visa) is a UK visa for immigration which allows a Commonwealth citizen to immigrate to the UK with the freedom to live and work in Britain on the basis of their ancestral ties to the United Kingdom.

Citizenship is membership in a political community and carries with it rights to political participation; a person having such membership is a citizen. Becoming a British citizen is a significant event in your life. As a British citizen, you are joining a community made up of many different backgrounds, cultures and faiths. Understanding the United Kingdom's diverse community and looking at the importance of mutual respect between nations, religions, ethnicity and regions.

The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 amended the British Nationality Act 1981 to require those seeking naturalization as British citizens to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of life in the United Kingdom as well as knowledge of English.

As from 1st November 2005 the Home Office has issued notice that all applicants for British Citizenship will have to sit a written exam in English which will be done by an examination of the candidates knowledge of life in the UK. Special courses will be run at some 90 Learn Direct centers throughout the country.

British Citizenship and Naturalization if you are not claiming based on U.K. Ancestry are normally claimed in two major ways:

In ALL cases you will need to have permanent residency/indefinite leave to remain in the UK before you can apply for citizenship. The length of time you must have been legally in the UK before this can be granted are:

This UK immigration service is one of several business visa applications through which immigration to the UK for business purposes may be achieved, however, like the sole representative visa and the entrepreneur visa for those wishing to live and work in the UK, applications this visas carry their own specific requirements, which must be satisfied.

• You must be in possession of at least £1 million to invest in the United Kingdom. At least £750,000 of this must be invested in Unit Trusts and/or private companies. The money may not be invested in off shore companies, property investment companies, or in banks or building societies, however, the remaining 250,000 (or more) may be invested as you see fit.
• You may not seek employment or undertake work in Britain other than managing your investments.
• You must consider the United Kingdom to be your main home and accordingly spend at least 50% of your time in the country.
• Documentary evidence of the funds at your disposal and your planned investments will need to be provided.

You may be able to apply to come to live in the United Kingdom if you are what is known as a retired person of independent means. This means you are financially independent and do not need or intend to support yourself or add to your income by working, and do not need to depend on anyone else to support you.

Be at least 60 years old; have a minimum disposable income of £25,000 a year under your control in the United Kingdom and be willing and able to maintain yourself and any dependants indefinitely in the United Kingdom entirely from your own resources and without working or any help from public funds. To obtain it, you should apply to the British diplomatic post in the country where you live. If you currently live in the United Kingdom with permission to stay here under another category, you may be able to switch to the retired persons category if you meet the requirements given above. You may only do this if you already have permission to stay as:

The investors category has now closed to new applicants. If you wish to come to the United Kingdom to work or invest, or you are already here in another immigration category and wish to extend your stay, you now need to apply under PBS Tier 1.The information is relevant to you if you are already in the United Kingdom under the investors category and now wish to apply to live here permanently.

This section explains how you can come to the United Kingdom as a sole representative of an overseas firm without a work permit. In most cases you will need a work permit and this section explains how you can apply for one if you need to. You are not allowed to switch into this category from another.

You can come to the UK to act as a sole representative if you are not a European Economic Area national. A sole representative is someone who will establish a wholly owned subsidiary or register a branch in the UK for an overseas parent company. The firm must have no branch, subsidiary or other representative in the UK. If the firm has a legal entity in the UK but this does not employ staff or transact business then they could have a sole representative in the UK.

Intra-Company Transfers (ICT's) allow a British based employer to fill a specific position, which they have been unable to fill from the resident United Kingdom or EU work force.

Applying for an Intra-Company Transfer UK work permit allows a non-EU citizen to work in the UK in a specific role for a specific company for an agreed period. For this type of permit for working candidates need to have been employed by the overseas branch of the company for a period of six months or more prior to the application, and it must demonstrated that the candidate has the relevant knowledge and experience to fulfil the role.

As with all British work permits, an application for a UK work permit of this kind must be made by the sponsoring company, not by the candidate themselves. However, it will be necessary for the applicant to apply for UK entry clearance.

It takes about six months to process an application. After the Citizenship has been granted you will receive notification of this and your nearest designated registry office will contact you to arrange for you to attend a citizenship ceremony at which you will receive your official certificate. You are normally allowed to invite guests to your ceremony. At the citizenship ceremony, new citizen make an oath or affirmation to Her Majesty The Queen and a pledge of loyalty to the United Kingdom. At the end of the ceremony the citizen receives a certificate which entitles you to apply for British passport if you wish.

This section explains how you can apply to come to the United Kingdom to work as a representative of an overseas media organization.

To be considered as a representative of an overseas media organization, you must be working in the United Kingdom as an employee of an overseas:

You will only be given permission to stay in the United Kingdom for a fixed period of time, at the end of this period you will need to either return home or apply to extend your stay. If you are coming to the United Kingdom to work for less than six months, it may be possible for you to apply under the business visitor category. You should read the pages on business visitors for more information. The representatives of an overseas media organization category can be a short or long-term immigration category. We will only extend your visa if you are still employed by the same organization that you were working for when you were given permission to enter the United Kingdom. Once you have been in the United Kingdom for five years as a representative of an overseas media organization you are entitled to apply to stay permanently.
Please note the representatives of overseas media arrangements are due to be deleted later this year when the new points-based system skilled workers of Tier 2 are launched.

You can come to the United Kingdom without a work permit if you a member of a film crew filming on location. You must be employed and paid overseas and coming only for location sequences. A film crew includes people who are essential to the film:

On location means the filming should be at specific locations. Filming being carried out in a studio will usually require work permits. You can obtain permission to come to the United Kingdom for up to 12 months under this category. In most cases you should get entry clearance if you are a non-European Economic Area (EEA) national to enter the United Kingdom.

Although it is not mandatory, you should obtain entry clearance to enter the United Kingdom in most cases if you are a non-European Economic Area (EEA) national.

In some cases, however, you can enter the United Kingdom as a business visitor rather than an entertainer, because business visitors do not need work permits. Entry as a business visitor would allow you to: