How to vote

The 15 year limit on voting rights for British citizens living overseas has now been removed.

Any British citizen living abroad who has previously lived in, or been registered to vote in the UK, will have the right to vote at UK Parliamentary elections. These voters will be registered at the constituency where they were last registered to vote, or where they lived if they were not registered to vote before.

You can register as an overseas voter to vote in a UK Parliamentary election if you are:

• A British citizen (which includes eligible Irish citizens and citizens of the Crown Dependencies) living abroad who was previously registered to vote in the UK, either before you left the UK or as an overseas elector OR
• A British citizen (which includes eligible Irish citizens and citizens of the Crown Dependencies) who was previously resident in the UK (including those who left the UK before they were old enough to register to vote)

Applicants must apply to register as an overseas elector in respect of the address where they were last registered to vote in the UK or, if they have never been registered, the last address at which they were resident in the UK.

How to register as an overseas elector

You can register as an overseas elector at gov.uk/register-to-vote.

If you were previously registered, you will have to provide details about the address and time you were last registered. If you have been previously registered at more than one address, then use the most recent address at which you were registered.

If you previously lived in the UK, but were not registered, you will need to provide details about the address and time where you were last resident.

Register now at gov.uk/register-to-vote

If you are unsure about anything to do with your registration status, please contact us.

Identity verification

Any person who makes a new overseas elector application must provide their name, previous name (where relevant), National Insurance number and DOB which are then used to check their identity against national and/or local government records.

If you are unable to provide your national insurance number at the time of application or the identity check fails, we will request that you provide us with documentary evidence to support your application.

We would contact you directly to supply this and the list of acceptable documents can be viewed on the Electoral Commission’s website

If you are unable to provide any supporting documentation from the list, then you can complete an identity attestation instead. Please contact our office to obtain this form.

Qualifying UK address verification

Any person who makes a new overseas elector application must provide details of their Qualifying UK address under the previously registered or previously resident condition.

The previously registered condition applies to a person who was previously registered to vote in the UK.

The previously resident condition applies to a person who was previously resident in the UK (but has not previously been registered to vote), including those who left the UK before they were old enough to register to vote.

If we are unable to establish that you were previously registered or resident at your qualifying UK address using our data, you will be asked to provide us with documentary evidence to support your application. 

View a list of acceptable documents which provide qualifying evidence of UK address.

The list of documents to support your previous address is not exhaustive, but we must be satisfied that it demonstrates you were previously registered/resident at the UK address. At the very least, it must contain your full name and the qualifying UK address.

If you are unable to provide any supporting documentation from the list, then you can complete an address attestation instead. Please contact our office to obtain this form.

How we check your qualifying UK address

When we review your application, we have to check historical records to confirm your qualifying UK address. The main check we undertake is on our historical electoral rolls. We also attempt to data match your name and address against national and local sources. It is only when we have checked all of these records that we will ask you to provide documentary evidence to support your application.

Due to the old rule preventing anyone registering who had left the UK over 15 years ago, we were only legally required to hold up to 15 years’ worth of registers to do these checks. We do hold a little further back than 15 years, but because of this, our earliest register on record to undertake checks is 2003.

If you left the UK before 2003 we don’t have the means to verify your address against our registers so it is more likely that we will ask you to provide documentary evidence. In order to progress your application you will need to provide this, but as stated above, if you are unable to, please contact us to obtain an attestation form.

Voting by post or proxy

Once registered as an overseas voter, your voting method will default to 'in person' which means you would have to attend your Herefordshire polling station on polling day in order to vote. We understand this may be difficult due to living abroad so we would recommend applying for either a postal vote or a proxy vote if you are not going to be in the UK on polling day. Overseas voters can do this online.

• Postal vote - more information and how to apply
• Proxy vote - more information and how to apply

Renewing your overseas registration

Overseas voters need to provide a renewal declaration every three years. Previously, it was every 12 months. A renewal declaration confirms that the details held on the electoral register are accurate and provides an opportunity to update correspondence details if necessary.

We will remind electors with overseas declarations to renew their registration no later than 4 months before their declaration expires.

If an overseas declaration is not renewed within the required deadline then it will expire and you will need to register to vote again.