Overseas voters

British citizens living overseas are entitled to be registered to vote in elections to the UK Parliament. They are known as overseas voters or overseas electors.

Overseas voters cannot vote in local elections or elections to the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru/Welsh Parliament or Northern Ireland Assembly.

Who is eligible to vote from overseas?

Any British citizen living overseas can register to vote as an overseas voter if they were:

• previously registered to vote in UK elections, including as an overseas voter, or
• previously resident in the UK before moving to an address abroad

Overseas voters must apply to register in the local authority of the last UK address where they were registered to vote or were resident.

People registering in England, Wales and Scotland can apply to vote online in the usual way, or using a paper form. People registering In Northern Ireland must apply to vote using a paper form.

All applications must be verified. Electoral registration officers can ask for additional documentary evidence to confirm a connection with a previous address. Providing false information is an offence.

Registration is valid for three years. Registered overseas electors will be sent a reminder that their registration needs to be renewed.

How many overseas electors are there?

At the 2024 general election, there were 191,338 registered overseas electors.

The overseas voter category was created in 1985. Until 2015, the number of registered overseas voters to vote had never risen above 35,000. In 2015 and 2016, overseas voter registrations rose following awareness campaigns and interest in the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU. At the 2017 general election, there were a record 285,000 registered overseas voters.

Until 2024 the eligibility to register as an overseas elector depended on how long ago someone left the UK. From 2000 to 2024, this was limited to 15 years.
The Elections Act 2022 removed this 15-year limit. Since January 2024, any British citizen living overseas can register as an overseas elector as long as they meet one of the two conditions outlined in the section above.

There are no official figures on the number of British citizens living overseas. The UN estimates that there were 4.8 million British citizens living overseas in 2024. When the Elections Bill was introduced in 2021, the accompanying impact assessment estimated that once the 15-year rule was abolished there could be around 3.2 to 3.4 million British citizens eligible to register as overseas voters.

Barriers to overseas voters having their ballots counted

Ballots must be returned by 10 pm on polling day to be counted. Any ballots delivered after this time cannot, by law, be counted.

Overseas voters can face practical and administrative barriers to voting, particularly because of the election timetable and deadlines for registration and postal voting.

Election timetable

A general election is 25 working days, starting when Parliament is dissolved and ending on polling day. Ballot papers cannot be printed nor postal voting packs sent until nominations have closed (19 working days before polling day). This gives around four weeks for postal ballots to be printed, delivered and returned.

Overseas voters registered to a constituency in Northern Ireland cannot use postal voting. They must appoint a proxy or vote in person if they are in Northern Ireland at the time of the election.

Deadlines for registration and postal voting

The deadline for registering to vote at a particular election is at midnight,
12 working days before polling day.

The deadline for applying for a postal vote in Great Britain is 5 pm, 11 working days before polling day. This is the same whether someone is overseas or in the UK.

Registering close to these deadlines leaves very little time for postal ballots to be issued and returned.

Electoral Commission recommendations

The Electoral Commission has highlighted the problems faced by overseas voters at general elections since 2005.

After the 2024 general election, the commission said options for overseas voters do not work well enough. It recommended that the UK Government should review the operation of overseas voting, including registration deadlines and consider making postal voting the default option for all overseas voters when they register. It also suggested exploring alternative voting methods, including:

• voting at embassies and consulates
• allowing voters to securely download a ballot paper
• telephone-assisted voting

In its 2024 report, the Association of Electoral Administrators called for a deadline of 5 pm, 16 working days before polling day for overseas electors to both register and request a postal vote. It also called for the UK Government to examine the possibility of creating overseas constituencies.

Government response to the Electoral Commission

The UK Government’s response to the Electoral Commission ruled out embassy or telephone voting in the short term, but said it may consider them in the longer term. It cited significant logistical and administrative challenges, particularly around administering elections and counting votes.

In July 2025, the government published an election strategy policy paper.
It did not propose any changes to the overall length of the election timetable and did not directly address overseas voting. However, it included proposals to bring forward the postal voting application deadline and to change the candidate nomination process, which it said would increase the “capacity in the timeline to support postal voters receiving their ballots”. These proposals were included in the Representation of the People Bill 2024–26. The bill’s progress can be followed on the UK Parliament website.