“You will be considered to be of sound mind if you have the ability to make your own decisions. You should understand the step you are taking in applying for British nationality.”
Life in the UK test is not the only requirement to become British; you also need to be of sound mind. As a matter of fact, not many people realize what kind of step that really is. A lot of people tend to mix up two notions: “become a British citizen” and “get a British passport”. While one is impossible without the other, - you can only hold a British passport if you’re British citizen* - being British actually involves many responsibilities which may be too overwhelming. One of these responsibilities is that you become elegible for jury duty. And jury duty takes, on average, 2 weeks, for which your employer doesn’t have to pay you!
If you saw what happened to Demi Moore in “The Juror”, you may reconsider the whole idea of becoming British. Although the movie takes place in the US, nothing guarantees you that the same story couldn’t happen in the UK.
In many cases, it may be a better idea to remain Permanent resident, without becoming citizen. For example, if you’re Swiss, Monegasque, Sanmarinese, Andorran, or Liechtensteiner. Your current citizenships are way cooler than UK, - immigration officers worldwide wave Swiss citizens through without even looking inside their passports, - just at the mere sight of their bright-red Schweizer Pass. It seems that the red colour was chosen just for that - to make it more noticeable in a crowd of brown.
By the way, British passports are sixth in terms of travel facility, - according to the Henley Visa Restriction index (2008). Want to be Number 1? Become a Dane. (By the way, Denmark has a “Life in Denmark” test, too. There are things you just can’t escape… The good thing is that unlike Life in the UK, the Danish citizenship test consists in answering questions that have been made public, which makes it unlikely that you will be asked something like
*simplistic; there is a variety of British passports, and you can get one even if you have never been to the UK.“D-Plates indicate, in Wales:
left-handed driver;
provisional license;
drunk driver;
blind driver”
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