Embassies have seen a "wave of interest" in passport and citizenship inquiries during the week after Britain voted to leave the European Union.
Polish, Italian and Canadian embassies reported increased levels of interest since the Brexit side claimed victory, while Ireland's Post Offices ran out of passports after a surge in demand.
Poland's embassy in London said its consulate had received at least 200 emails and 600 phone calls regarding Polish citizenship and passports in the six days after the referendum vote, mainly from people with Polish origins.
A spokeswoman said: "There is a wave of interest in getting Polish passports.
"Normally monthly we get around 10 emails and calls regarding this issue. After the referendum, since last Friday, they have had around 250 inquiries daily."
These requests were mainly from British citizens with Polish heritage but also from married couples where one spouse was Polish, especially when the pair had children, she said.
Italy's embassy said its two consulates in London and Edinburgh had received at least 500 emails about obtaining Polish citizenship since Friday June 24, the majority of them from British nationals with Italian ancestry who specified the Brexit vote as motivation.
"They are applying because they have the right to, but this is the thing that pushed them," a spokesman said.
This was a "huge increase" from the norm, he said, adding that the consulates received 446 emails requesting citizenship following marriage in the first six months of 2016.
The Canadian embassy said there was a 325% increase in UK users accessing its Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada website on June 24 - the day after millions went to the polls to cast their votes.
The weekend saw a 75% increase in traffic, and visits were up 60% on Monday to Wednesday compared to the average daily traffic from the previous week.
Numbers have since been slowly tailing off, suggesting the initial spike was triggered by uncertainty in the immediate aftermath of the referendum vote.
Visits to the website could be for purposes other than emigration, the embassy noted.
Meanwhile, Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs had to appeal for calm after Post Offices ran out of Irish passport applications in the wake of the referendum result.
Dublin's Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan warned an "unnecessary surge" was threatening to have a significant impact on the passport service and could hit those who urgently need one.
Calls have been made to open Irish passport offices in Belfast and Londonderry so that Northern Irish citizens, 56% of whom voted to remain in the EU, can apply.
The US embassy said it was too early to tell if Brexit would have an impact on citizenship applications, while other embassies did not respond to the Press Association's requests.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel