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Please note that my situation is very similar to yours. I had only 12 days window period in April 2012 when I came on family visa though but came back on a spouse visa in August 2012. However I ve applied for my Citizenship in April 2015 based on physical presence and I ve not exceeded 270 days.LaVeille8 wrote:Hi,
My wife is shortly applying for naturalisation as spouse of British citizen (me) and we have just realised there is one very particular requirement that it appears she has to be very careful to meet.
This is point 1 on page 4 of the Requirements booklet (AN), to quote: "You must have been physically present in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands on the day 3 years before the application is received by the Home Office. For example if your application is received on 20/1/2015, you should have been physically present in the United Kingdom on 21/1/2012."
She was stamped into the UK on her spouse visa on 20/06/2012, so that is when her 3-yr residence qualifying period starts. However she was absent from the UK on a long holiday from 30/06/2012 until 28/09/2012. Total absences over 3yrs don't exceed 270 days.
My interpretation of the rules is that her application must be received in the narrow window 20/06/2015 - 30/06/2015, or she must wait until the end of September. Just wondering if this is correct.
She can submit her application beween 20th and 29th as long as HO receives the application on 30th June 2015. I personally wouldnt take chance and apply on 29th coz Royal Mail sometimes take more than a day. I would apply on 20th.
Also, is this just some random extra rule that they put in place as an additional filter or is there some logic behind it? It would seem they put it in to make sure people didn't apply too early, but worded it such that it also disqualifies people who would otherwise easily satisfy the residence requirement (say they have been here 20 years) but happened to be in (say) France for a couple of days on the particular date 3 years before the Home Office receives the naturalisation application. Intentional?
Lastly, is the date of receipt of the application the day the postman drops the special delivery envelope through the Home Office postbox or should we take into account that they might not acknowledge receipt until a couple of days later when they have opened the envelope? The window is narrow! We are applying through the nationality checking service so it will be them who send the application.
The date of receipt is the date when HO receives the Royal Mail delivery
Many thanks!
You did not mention that if your wife entered UK on 20/06/2012 or this is visa stamp date or she was given further leave to remain in the UK. Qualifying period starts from the day she was present in the UK, for example if she arrived in the UK on 20/06/2012 then yes you have a short window of 10 days to apply.LaVeille8 wrote:Hi,
My wife is shortly applying for naturalisation as spouse of British citizen (me) and we have just realised there is one very particular requirement that it appears she has to be very careful to meet.
This is point 1 on page 4 of the Requirements booklet (AN), to quote: "You must have been physically present in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands on the day 3 years before the application is received by the Home Office. For example if your application is received on 20/1/2015, you should have been physically present in the United Kingdom on 21/1/2012."
She was stamped into the UK on her spouse visa on 20/06/2012, so that is when her 3-yr residence qualifying period starts. However she was absent from the UK on a long holiday from 30/06/2012 until 28/09/2012. Total absences over 3yrs don't exceed 270 days.
My interpretation of the rules is that her application must be received in the narrow window 20/06/2015 - 30/06/2015, or she must wait until the end of September. Just wondering if this is correct.
Also, is this just some random extra rule that they put in place as an additional filter or is there some logic behind it? It would seem they put it in to make sure people didn't apply too early, but worded it such that it also disqualifies people who would otherwise easily satisfy the residence requirement (say they have been here 20 years) but happened to be in (say) France for a couple of days on the particular date 3 years before the Home Office receives the naturalisation application. Intentional?
Lastly, is the date of receipt of the application the day the postman drops the special delivery envelope through the Home Office postbox or should we take into account that they might not acknowledge receipt until a couple of days later when they have opened the envelope? The window is narrow! We are applying through the nationality checking service so it will be them who send the application.
Many thanks!
One reason could be because some people apply for visas to live and work in the UK and then don't and only use it to visit the UK for brief periods and continue to work and live in their home country, meaning they have very high levels of absences but still want to qualify for British citizenship, a case of 'having their cake and eating it'.It is a funny rule because it means that after you have satisfied the 3-yr qualifying period, you still have to keep track of your absence dates 3 years prior to make sure your application date does not coincide with them. It makes little sense to me but I won't argue.
RegardingLaVeille8 wrote:Hi,
My wife is shortly applying for naturalisation as spouse of British citizen (me) and we have just realised there is one very particular requirement that it appears she has to be very careful to meet.
This is point 1 on page 4 of the Requirements booklet (AN), to quote: "You must have been physically present in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands on the day 3 years before the application is received by the Home Office. For example if your application is received on 20/1/2015, you should have been physically present in the United Kingdom on 21/1/2012."
...
My interpretation of the rules is that her application must be received in the narrow window 20/06/2015 - 30/06/2015, or she must wait until the end of September. Just wondering if this is correct.
...
Lastly, is the date of receipt of the application the day the postman drops the special delivery envelope through the Home Office postbox or should we take into account that they might not acknowledge receipt until a couple of days later when they have opened the envelope? The window is narrow! We are applying through the nationality checking service so it will be them who send the application.
Many thanks!
See section 3 & in particular 3.3 of this UK gov Chapter 18 document:... requirement to have been physically present in the United Kingdom on a date five (three) years before the date of application (the date of application is defined in Chapter 6)
Obviously it's still less stressful and more certain to apply within the appropriate time window.When an application form is redeclared, the original application date is superseded by a new application date, which is the date on which the redeclared form is received back in the Home Office. Redeclaration should normally be offered at the outset and the redeclared application returned to await consideration under its new application date.
LaVeille8,LaVeille8 wrote:Thank you for the comments.
...
Yes we were going to contact a number of local councils to see which would be the most favourable.
If it looks too tight we would just have to put it on hold until October (when we wouldn't be bound by any windows) which is not the end of the world.