how many years do I need to sound and write like a native?

Hey. I’ve been studying English for almost ten years and I’m C2. I started in an institute and then I continued my studies in a teaching college (I’m a teacher of English) You can do several things; first you can practise by your own using course books or activities from the internet, there are several free courses. You can also watch movies in English or listen to music. That also works Reddit also helps because you can ask people to talk to and you can learn a lot :)

Join a discord where a lot of English speakers are so you can practice.

It’s not about years, when learning a language. It’s about *immersion*. If you are surrounded by English speakers and you converse a lot in English, or consume English media — then you can very rapidly gain fluency.

I've had *university professors* who didn't sound like natives. One in particular never got the hang of /l/ vs /ɹ̠/, which made his accent quite noticeable. (French and Spanish speakers tend to use /r/ (trilled r) when English speakers would use /ɹ̠/ (untrilled r) which isn't exactly *bad* but it doesn't sound native, either.) On a related note, I know of a Spanish YouTuber who uses /x/ (the -ch sound in *loch*) instead of /h/, which makes his speech sound a bit harsh any time he says a word with an h in it. He's not hard to understand but the difference is slightly jarring. There's no overnight solution to accent reduction--and many get by with very noticeable accents--but if you want to eliminate that, you're going to need to get familiar with [English phonology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology), figure out which sounds English has but your language doesn't and train on those sounds. I also had one college professor of Vietnamese origin who *almost* sounded like a native but would frequently not add an -s/-es sound to the end of plurals. Accents are like that sometimes. As for writing, that's gong to take a lot of reading, writing, and getting your writing corrected.

Unless you have a talent mimicking how people speak, you unlikely will ever sound like a native, sorry to break it to you. But you can be near-native, and comprehensible to natives without any problem, which is a better goal. Source: after 25 years living in USA, I still have accent, but everyone can understand me (less than many other foreigners).

It's impossible to answer (re. how many years). Some people who've moved to England and lived here for decades still have a thick accent, and don't sound like a native. Others who have only been here for a couple of years are indistinuishable from natives. *Usually,* that's younger people. But it varies massively from person to person. Tips... it's all about practice. The only way to learn is by using the language.

Dude, I was formally examined for C1 when I was 16 and I don't know yet. You'll never sound like a “native with no accent”. You'll be fluent. The words and expressions will come to you naturally with immersion.

I know people who’ve lived in the U.S. for decades and still have an accent so I’m not sure if “sounding like a native” is possible or even desirable. As long as you can speak clearly and be understood, that’s fine. One of my college professors was from Nigeria and spoke with a very noticeable accent but was totally understandable.