26 January 2018

Even the royals have to deal with immigration issues. Assuming Prince Harry, a British citizen, and Meghan Markle, a US citizen, want to reside in the UK after they are married, they will need to consider the strict, extensive and expensive UK immigration requirements as any other transatlantic couple.

For example, for Meghan to enter the UK and marry her prince at Windsor Castle on May 19, she would need to initially obtain a fiancée visa which would be valid for a limited six month period. These types of visas normally take approximately six weeks with priority service, which one can only assume she will elect to use. Within the visa’s six month validity period, Meghan will need to enter the UK, get married to Harry and then apply for leave to remain as the spouse of a British citizen. She would not be permitted to work in the UK until she obtains the spouse leave to remain, so she would need to put her acting career (and potentially her official engagements) on hold.

To qualify for the fiancée visa and leave to remain, Meghan would also need to satisfy a financial requirement which is often difficult to understand, let alone to meet.

The requirement under the Immigration Rules is to evidence income of at least £18,600 in the last year and if this is through employment earnings this would need to be Harry’s earnings and in addition, he would need to have a job offer in the UK. An alternative option for the couple would be to meet the requirement through cash savings. However, if relying on cash savings only, the level increases (by doing a complicated calculation) to £62,500. In addition, these funds must have been held in their name(s) for the six months prior to submitting the application. Harry would need to provide his personal bank statements covering that period.

While presumably the financial requirements are unlikely to be a problem for Harry and Meghan, this is not the case for many others who are either unable to meet the requirements or to understand and provide the combination of personal and original mandatory documentation.

Meghan will also undoubtedly be considering how she can obtain British citizenship. Once she obtains immigration permission as Harry’s spouse, she will be on the five year route to indefinite leave to remain (permanent residence) in the UK. She would initially be granted permission for 30 or 33 months (depending on whether she applies in the UK or in the US) so would be required to apply for an extension to take her up to the five years. Once she obtains indefinite leave to remain she can then apply to naturalize as a British citizen, which usually takes approximately six months requiring an applicant to attend a citizenship ceremony and swear or affirm an oath of allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen.

And what about the US immigration implications of Meghan’s new status? Can Meghan retain US citizenship as a member of the British royal family? Meghan can lose her US citizenship by voluntarily performing any number of specific, enumerated acts which include acquiring the citizenship of another country or working for a foreign government. However, performing these expatriating acts alone is insufficient to lose citizenship. The US has long recognized dual nationality and according to UK government statistics, more than 3800 US citizens were granted UK citizenship in 2016. To effectively lose US citizenship, an expatriating act must be performed voluntarily with the intention of relinquishing US citizenship. And while the Department of State has stated that policy level positions may be inherently incompatible with retaining US citizenship, except for heads of state and foreign ministers, the Department will not typically consider employment in a policy-level position to lead to loss of US nationality as long as the individual says that he or she did not intend to lose US nationality and all other actions were consistent with the retention of US nationality.

Meghan would not therefore lose her US citizenship by simply marrying a member of the British royal family, even if she takes an official role in the UK government. But if she wants to lose her citizenship, she, like all other US citizens, is able to do so.

As the US taxes its citizens on a worldwide basis, regardless of residence, Meghan may consider making a formal renunciation of nationality before a U.S. diplomatic or consular officer should she acquire British citizenship. She should be well advised on her actual reasons for renouncing citizenship as renouncing citizenship to avoid US taxes is a ground of permanent inadmissibly meaning if it is determined that Meghan renounced her citizenship to avoid paying US taxes, she would not be able to return to the US even as a visitor without being granted a discretionary waiver of inadmissability.

And what about the future princes and princesses? If Meghan keeps her US citizenship and her children are born and reside outside the US, they may be eligible for US citizenship and could hold dual US/UK citizenship.