Do you need to be a UK citizen or resident to make a Will?
Last verified: April 2026 (England & Wales)
No. You do not have to be a UK citizen to make a valid Will in England & Wales.
In many cases, you do not have to be resident here either.
The real questions are usually more practical than that: do you own assets here, are you living here now, do you already have a foreign Will, and is anything outside England & Wales likely to need separate coordination?
This page answers the narrow gateway question. If your issue is really about overseas property, foreign bank accounts, dual nationality, or a Will that needs to sit alongside another country’s document, see Foreign Property and Assets in Your UK Will.
Quick-read summary
• UK citizenship is not the test for whether you can make a Will in England & Wales.
• Residence matters in some wider legal and tax contexts, but it is not the simple validity test either.
• If you live in England & Wales and your assets are here, making a Will is often straightforward even if you are not British.
• If you live abroad or already have a foreign Will, that does not automatically stop you making an England & Wales Will, but the drafting may need more care.
• The more cross-border your life is, the more important it becomes to coordinate the documents properly.
The short answer
For most people, the starting point is simple.
If you live in England & Wales and own assets here, you can usually make a valid England & Wales Will whether you are:
• British
• not British
a dual national
• married to someone of a different nationality
• living here permanently
• living here now but with ties elsewhere
Citizenship alone is usually not the obstacle.
The real complications usually come from somewhere else: foreign property, a permanent home abroad, an existing foreign Will, or a tax or succession issue that crosses borders.
What actually matters
At a practical level, the first things to ask are:
• where are you mainly living now
• where are your main assets
• do you already have a Will in another country
• are you trying to deal only with England & Wales assets, or with a wider international estate
• could local foreign law affect part of the estate even if your England & Wales Will is valid
That is why this page is best treated as a gateway page, not the whole cross-border answer.
When the position is usually straightforward
The position is often quite straightforward where:
• you live in England & Wales• your home and savings are here
• your estate is mainly here
• you do not have foreign property
• you do not already have a foreign Will
In that kind of case, not being a British citizen does not usually stop the Will from being a normal England & Wales Will.
When extra care is usually needed
Extra care is more likely to be needed where:
• your permanent home is outside the UK
• you own property overseas• you already have a foreign Will
• you have dual nationality and strong ties to another country
• you want an England & Wales Will to sit alongside a foreign Will without revoking it
• the estate may be affected by foreign succession rules, foreign administration, or foreign tax issues
That does not mean you cannot make an England & Wales Will. It usually means the England & Wales Will needs to be drafted with a clearer scope and in coordination with the wider picture.
Mixed-nationality couples
Mixed-nationality couples often assume there is a problem when there is not.
If you both live in England & Wales and your home and assets are here, your Wills may be entirely normal from an England & Wales point of view even if one of you is British and the other is not.
The complication only tends to increase where one of you already has a foreign Will, owns overseas property, or expects part of the estate to be governed elsewhere.
Existing foreign Wills
An existing foreign Will does not automatically prevent an England & Wales Will being made.
But this is where careless drafting can cause avoidable trouble. If the wording is too broad, one Will may revoke the other by mistake. If the scope is unclear, both Wills may appear to cover the same asset.
So the real issue is often not “can I make an English Will?” but “how do I make sure it only does the job I need it to do here?”
For the deeper version of that issue, read Foreign Property and Assets in Your UK Will.
Cases
“Romanian couple settled in Warwickshire”
Both were Romanian nationals, but they lived in England, their home was here, and their savings were here. Their Wills were not difficult because of nationality. In practical terms, they were standard England & Wales Wills.
“British husband and French wife living in Rugby”
Their life together was based in England, but she already had a French Will connected to property in France. The answer was not that she could not have an England & Wales Will. The answer was that the England & Wales Will had to be written so it did not interfere with the French one.
“Brazilian couple living in England with all assets here”
Their nationality did not stop them making Wills here. The real question was whether anything outside England & Wales also needed separate planning. Because their estate was centred here, the England & Wales Wills remained the main documents.
“British national now living in Spain but still owning UK assets”
He could still need an England & Wales Will for the UK side. The issue was no longer simple citizenship. It was coordination between his life abroad, his Spanish planning, and the property and assets still held here.
“Dual national with one foot in each country”
She assumed dual nationality made everything more complicated from the start. Sometimes it does not. The real difficulty only appears when there is foreign property, a foreign Will, or a need to decide which country’s document should cover which assets.
FAQs
Do I need to be a UK citizen to make a Will in England & Wales?
No. Citizenship is not the basic validity test.
Do I need to live in England & Wales to make a valid Will here?
Not always. Some people living abroad still need an England & Wales Will for assets here. But once you live abroad, the wider cross-border position usually needs more care.
Can a foreign national make a normal Will in England & Wales?
Yes, often they can. If they live here and their estate is based here, the Will can be relatively straightforward.
What if my spouse or partner is a different nationality?
That is not a problem by itself. The practical issues usually come from foreign assets, foreign Wills, or foreign legal connections, not from mixed nationality alone.
What if I already have a Will abroad?
You may still need an England & Wales Will, but the drafting has to be coordinated properly so one document does not accidentally revoke or undermine the other.
What if I own property overseas as well?
That is usually a different and wider question. Read Foreign Property and Assets in Your UK Will.
Optional technical notes
For those who want the detail:
• Under the Wills Act 1837, the basic England & Wales execution rules still matter.
• Under the Wills Act 1963, a Will may also be treated as properly executed if it complied with the law of the place where it was made, or a place where the person was domiciled or habitually resident, or a state of which they were a national, and there is also a specific rule for immovable property by reference to where that property is situated.
• Tax is separate from Will validity. From 6 April 2025, HMRC moved Inheritance Tax from the old domicile-based approach to a long-term UK residence approach for IHT purposes. That is a tax point, not a basic Will-validity point.
This article is general information only, not individual advice.
If you live in England & Wales and want a Will that is valid here, nationality alone is usually not the thing that makes it difficult. Where there is a wider cross-border issue, the aim is to make sure the England & Wales Will does its own job properly without clashing with anything abroad.
For the wider cross-border version of this topic, see Foreign Property and Assets in Your UK Will.
