Where can British citizens move to?
Ranked by what the move actually takes on a British passport specifically, not in general. Every rating below comes from the same verified data as the full guide it links to.
You keep your British passport if you naturalise in 9 of these 12. Naturalising in Japan, the Netherlands and Spain would mean giving it up.
Open to you in Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand. Usually age-capped, so it closes quietly.
Easiest to keep driving on in Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain and Thailand. Each guide has the exact terms. Elsewhere expect more steps, often a full local test.
An apostille is accepted in 11 of these 12. Thailand still needs the full consular legalisation chain, so start earlier.
Straightforward 9 of 12
- AustraliaBritons remain one of the largest sources of skilled and employer-sponsored migrants, plus one of the biggest working-holiday cohorts on the 417 visa, reflecting a century-long migration relationship with Australia.Straightforward
- CanadaFor Britons the Working Holiday route dominates — the UK has one of the largest IEC allocations, around 9,200 working-holiday places a year.Straightforward
- Costa RicaBritons relocate mostly as Pensionado or Rentista residents, or on the Digital Nomad visa; Guanacaste and the Central Valley are the most common landing zones.Straightforward
- IrelandUK citizens simply move — the Common Travel Area gives them the right to live, work, vote in most elections, and access public services in Ireland with no visa, no employment permit, and no residence registration required at all, a genuinely unique relationship found nowhere else in Ireland's immigration system.Straightforward
- ItalyPost-Brexit, Britons need a full national visa to live in Italy — the Elective Residency Visa is the most common route for retirees, alongside self-employment visas and Decreto Flussi employer sponsorship for younger workers who lost automatic EU rights.Straightforward
- JapanBritons commonly arrive through English teaching (JET or private eikaiwa), the Working Holiday visa, or the Engineer/Specialist in Humanities visa in finance and tech.Straightforward
- New ZealandBritons move to NZ across the board: working holidays that convert to residence, direct Skilled Migrant Category applications (healthcare, trades, engineering), and family reunification given long-standing UK-NZ migration ties.Straightforward
- PortugalBritons move mostly through the D7 visa (retirees and passive-income movers) and, increasingly, the D8 digital-nomad visa, continuing a decades-long Algarve retirement pattern now joined by younger remote workers.Straightforward
- SpainSince Brexit ended automatic EU rights, Britons now use the Non-Lucrative Visa or Digital Nomad Visa like any other third-country national — the long-standing retiree community mostly extends its stay under these routes.Straightforward
Moderate 3 of 12
- NetherlandsMost Britons now arrive via the Kennismigrant visa or intra-company transfer through recognized-sponsor employers in finance and tech, alongside a wave of remote workers and retirees since Brexit.Moderate
- ThailandBritons relocate mainly via the retirement (O-A) visa, the DTV for remote workers, or the LTR visa for wealthy pensioners/professionals; a smaller group works under employer-sponsored permits in hospitality and education.Moderate
- United StatesH-1B (subject to lottery), L-1 intracompany transfers (common given large UK-US corporate presence), E-2 treaty investors, and family-based sponsorship are all significant; no severe per-country backlog issue for UK-born applicants.Moderate
Ratings weigh entry class, working-holiday access, licence exchange, dual citizenship and document legalisation. Each is checked against the issuing government. Open any destination for the full guide written for British citizens.