Choosing referees for a British citizenship application

A naturalisation application on form AN requires two referees. It is the part of the form people leave until last, and it is a surprisingly common reason for an otherwise straightforward application to be delayed.

The rules are specific, and they are worth reading properly before you ask anyone.

Who your two referees must be

You need two referees, and they must meet different tests.

• Referee 1 must be a person of professional standing.
• Referee 2 must be a British citizen aged 25 or over, or another person of professional standing.

Both must have known you personally for at least three years. Not known of you — known you.

What counts as a person of professional standing

The Home Office publishes a list, and it is longer than most people assume. It includes, among others:

• Minister of religion, justice of the peace, or a serving police officer.
• Doctor, dentist, optician, pharmacist, veterinary surgeon or qualified nurse.
• Solicitor, barrister, chartered accountant, surveyor or engineer.
• Teacher, lecturer, librarian or airline pilot.
• Bank or building society official, civil servant (permanent), or a fellow of a recognised professional body.
• Anyone with a professional qualification, and anyone who is a member of a professional body recognised in the UK.

The full list is on GOV.UK and is the one to check, because it changes.

Who cannot act as your referee

This is where applications come unstuck. A referee cannot be:

• Related to you.
• Related to the other referee.
• Your solicitor or immigration adviser acting on the application.
• Employed by the Home Office.
• Someone with an unspent criminal conviction.
• Someone who has been convicted of an immigration offence in the last ten years.

The bar on your own representative acting as referee catches people out regularly. If we are advising on your application, we cannot also be one of your two referees — and neither can anyone else at the firm handling it.

What your referees actually have to do

Each referee completes their section of the form, confirms how long and in what capacity they have known you, and signs a declaration. They will also need to provide their own details, including their passport number where they are relying on being a British citizen.

The declaration is not a formality: a referee who signs it is confirming the information is true to the best of their knowledge, and a false declaration is a criminal offence. Ask people who genuinely know you well enough to sign it comfortably.

Practical advice

• Ask early. People are away, change jobs, and lose passports. Two weeks’ notice is not enough.
• Check the three-year requirement honestly. A GP you have seen twice is not someone who has known you for three years.
• Take a copy of the completed referee sections before you submit, so you can answer any query without going back to them.
• Tell your referees they may be contacted. The Home Office does sometimes check.
• If a referee’s circumstances have changed — a new conviction, a change of job that affects their professional standing — replace them rather than hoping.

If you genuinely cannot find two referees

It happens: people who have recently arrived in a new area, or whose community is small, sometimes struggle. Explain the position rather than stretching the truth on the form. The Home Office can consider the circumstances, and a candid explanation is a far better position than a referee who does not meet the requirements.

Where this sits in the application

Referees are one requirement among several — residence, good character, the Life in the UK test and English language all have their own rules, and the residence calculation in particular repays care. We quote citizenship applications as a fixed fee agreed in writing beforehand, and the first consultation is free.