Hamster123 wrote:I wanted to know if I can apply for a work permit in Germany and at around the same time for a BC. (I.e. you have to live in the UK for most of the last year before applying for a BC if I am not mistaken, so I am not sure if say looking for an abroad work permit is allowed. And even if it's technically allowed, if it will not hamper my chances to get the BC. Getting a no on a BC application is not exactly great)
I surmised as much from the tenor of the original discussion and I believe that there is no impediment to applying for a German (or other) work permit while applying for British citizenship, apart from the fact that once you are British, your German work permit is redundant, as of course, as an EEA citizen, you do not need a German work permit.
Hamster123 wrote:
Anyway, I guess I am just very surprised that there is no, at least semi-clear, rule as to what constitutes as living in the UK and how long, if at all, I am allowed to work abroad.
For instance I was (maybe wrongly it seems) expecting something like this, which
I made up and is NOT! real of course (in case someone else reads this thread later with the same question):
The person in question has to:
- come in the UK at least once every 6 months,
- be in the UK for at least 3 months every year,
- has to be in the UK for at least 3 years out of every given 5 year period.
Cheers.
English law (Scots law is a different kettle of fish, or should I say, sturgeon) tends not to rely too much on spelling things out absolutely and tends to rely on what a reasonable person would think of the issue. Indeed, great lawyers and judges have spoken and written at length of this hypothetical "reasonable person". That is also why so much English law depends on juries of 12 randomly selected people. They are likely to average out to what a reasonable person would think.
This is disconcerting for people from other cultures, particularly civil law jurisdictions, which tend to spell things out explicitly. But it has the advantage of the law automatically adapting to current culture simply because of a change in the way people (not judges, but ordinary people) interpret it.
If you look at immigration law, almost all of it is completely at the discretion of the Home Office. There are very few absolute rules in it. And in almost every case, you can ask for discretion. So long as you can convince a reasonable person (the caseworker) that you intend to work/settle, you will be granted leave to remain.
So, in your instance, it would depend on whether the Immigration Officer can be convinced that the center of your life is in the UK and that you are in Germany only for research/PhD oriented work.
Hamster123 wrote:
Indeed, my opinion exactly and that's why I said something, which in retrospect was not that smart it seems
, considering that it has become the main point of discussion of this thread
.
So that being said, I am sorry if I hurt someones feelings, I didn't mean that.
I doubt you have hurt anybody's feelings. If anything, you have injected a note of levity and a mild diversion from the more mundane issues that we help out with. I can certainly speak for myself when I say that it is appreciated.
As an aside, may I ask what field is your PhD in? And (for purely personal interest), which country are you from?
).
