You do not have to be a British citizen to vote in UK elections or referendums.
There are different rules on whether you can vote depending on your nationality in different UK elections. We have detailed how some international students can vote. Click on the relevant link below to find out more:
Because the UK departed from the EU, the voting eligibility of EU citizens in the UK has changed.
If you live in England and Northern Ireland, you can continue to vote in some UK elections if you were a resident before the cut-off period, which ended on 31 December 2020. You can find a list of countries in the EU here.
EU citizens who are resident in England and Northern Ireland and arrived in the UK from 1 January 2021 will only get local election voting rights if there is a bilateral agreement between the UK and their home country.
This agreement currently includes Spain, Portugal, Luxembourg, Poland, and Denmark have these agreements. The exceptions to this rule include Malta and Cyprus which are members of the Commonwealth and are therefore eligible to be registered to vote in respect of all elections held in the UK. Additionally, citizens from the Republic of Ireland continue to have the right to vote in all elections.
Qualifying Commonwealth citizens are entitled to register as Parliamentary and as local government electors provided that on the relevant date, they also fulfill the age and residence requirements for registration and are not subject to any other legal incapacity.
This includes (as of May 2024) citizens from: Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Australia, Kenya, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, The Bahamas, Kingdom of Eswatini, Samoa, Bangladesh, Kiribati, Seychelles, Barbados, Lesotho, Sierra Leone, Belize, Malawi, Singapore, Botswana, Malaysia, Solomon Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Maldives, South Africa, Cameroon, Malta*, Sri Lanka, Canada, Mauritius, Togo, Cyprus*, Mozambique, Tonga, Dominica, Namibia, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, Nauru, Tuvalu, Gabon, New Zealand, Uganda, The Gambia, Nigeria, Ghana, Pakistan, United Republic of Tanzania, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Guyana, Rwanda, Zambia, India, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Zimbabwe.
*Although also EU member states, citizens of Cyprus and Malta are eligible to be registered to vote in respect of all elections held in the UK.
Find Out More
Citizens of British Overseas Territories are eligible to register when resident in the UK. This includes (as of May 2024) citizens from: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands.
Citizens of the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are also eligible to register when resident in the UK.
Following its transfer to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997, Hong Kong was deleted from the list of British Overseas Territories. As a result, former residents of Hong Kong are not automatically qualifying Commonwealth citizens.
Only those previous residents of Hong Kong who hold a British Overseas Territories, British Nationals (Overseas), or British Overseas passport meet the nationality criterion for all elections in the UK. Any previous resident of Hong Kong who only has a Chinese Special Administrative Region passport is Chinese and may not register as a qualifying Commonwealth citizen. They may, however, be eligible to register as a qualifying foreign citizen.
If you are from a country that is not listed above this may mean you will not be able to vote in UK Elections. If you are unsure, please check the 'Can I Vote' website and input your country to check.
You need to register to vote on the UK Government’s website.
You do not have to have a National Insurance number to register to vote and you can answer the questions in the following way:
If an election is called in your home country while you are studying in the UK, and you wish to vote, contact your country's Embassy or High Commission in the UK for advice. An overseas vote may require you to register and vote earlier than normal, so get advice as soon as possible after the election has been called.