eastberks44 wrote:Hi I am a Hungarian citizen who has just tried - twice - completing the AN form. Below is a summary of my position
1. Married a UK citizen in Budapest in 2002
2. We moved and settled permanently in the UK in April 2010. As our child was still young enough to need me at home full time, I did not immediately seek employment but did obtain a UK national Insurance number for the purpose of claiming Child Benefit. I started applying for jobs only after the Workers Registration Scheme became defunct
3. I have a bachelors degree in Journalism from the USA
4. I took the 'old' Life in the UK test in 2013 and was assured at the time that the result would still be valid even after the new test was introduced.
5. I have been working nearly full time as a supply teacher since July 2013, having had my Hungarian teaching qualification recognised by the UK teaching Agency.
6. My only brush with the law since entering the UK is a speeding ticket 6 months ago.
I have spoken to 2 different people at my local authority's Nationality Checking Service, the first one said I should have been eligible after 3 years on the grounds of being married to a UK citizen, but the second told me not to bother booking an appointment as I had failed to register under the WRS so I would have to wait until the 5th anniversary of it becoming defunct.
Now I don't want to find out come May 2016 that there's some other document that has to be applied for before the citizenship application process can begin. So is there anything I can or should apply for now, for example PR / ILR, or a biometric record?
All replies will be greatly appreciated.
If you did not come to UK with a visa (ie under UK Immigration Rules) then you are operating under EU rules.
To naturalise you need
settled status ie ILR (through Immigration Rules) or PR (via EU rules).
To acquire PR you need to be in UK
exercising treaty rights as a qualified person (eg worker, jobseeker, student, self-sufficient etc).
(
Note: To be considered a student or self-sufficient person you will have to have had CSI in place).
Once you have exercised treaty rights (in 1 or more of these categories), continuously, for
5 years you will automatically attain PR. It doesn't have to be 'applied for' as such.
(It is then optional whether you apply for a
PR card ie simply confirmation of
PR status).
As spouse of BC you do not need to hold settled status for a further 12 months (as a non-spouse would), you could apply for naturalisation directly;
(assuming all other requirements are met, eg KOLL, absences within limits, sound mind, good character, physically present in UK 5 years before date of application, etc).
It sounds like your PR clock may have started as a worker in 2013 unless you can claim treaty rights as a student before then (?), or possibly self-sufficient status since 2010 until you started work.
In terms of good character the most recent 12 months before applying for naturalisation are most critical.
Experience & guidance in this forum suggests HO tolerates 1 FPN in a year.
Best of luck.
