ILR holder and Nationality application

[UK Resident]

Hi All,

I am an ILR holder in the UK (since last jan 2004).
I have completed the continuous 5 years of stay (with around 84 days of absence across all 5 years) and have also completed ceratainly a couple of days more than 12 month on my ILR.

Now I intend to apply fo British nationality.

Everything is in order. There is this "referee" section which is possibly in slight trouble.

I know several people (friends) who are british citizens, mostly because they are either my accountants or my contracting agency or my collegues or ex-collegues at work.

I spoke to few of them regarding standing as a referee for my british nationality application.

All of them say they know me and they are more than happy friends of mine but all of them seem to hesitate a bit when it comes to signing in paper especially something like a passport/nationality application.

It looks like the main concern is the application does not simply ask them to say they know me personally but then it actually asks them to sign as a referee saying that they personally support and recommend to the government for my british nationality! ... That is how it is worded in the application.

They end up expressing with apologies that they would not sign something saying they recommend for a nationality to me to the government, that too in paper. If it was just that they had to sign saying they know me personally, it turns out to be fine for them.

This is causing severe enbarassment for all of us.

I was wondering how to manage this sort of a situation.

Any ideas?

Excepting this part, my application is all ready to go!

Thanks for your time.

[anonymous10]

I sent off my application recently and had this concern of getting referees to sign my application. I made sure that I gave the referees sufficient notice and also showed the guidline notes. I was very open with them. Fortunately for me both the people I asked agreed to sign my form.

Have the people you have asked so far raised any specific concerns? Why not try somebody who has become a British Citizen recently and knows you well? They might be little more understanding. In the end you have to get somebody to sign and there is no harm in asking everybody who qualifies to sign as a referee.

Wish you all the best.

[UK Resident]

Yup! I was absolutely being open with everyone of them I requested.

I showed them the whole application (which contains every bit of information like my NI number, date of birth, etc.) and also the refereee guidelines.

Like I said the problematic area is this:

"It looks like the main concern is the application does not simply ask them to say they know me personally but then it actually asks them to sign as a referee saying that they personally support and recommend to the government for my british nationality! ... That is how it is worded in the application.

They end up expressing with apologies that they would not sign something saying they recommend for a nationality to me to the government, that too in paper. If it was just that they had to sign saying they know me personally, it turns out to be fine for them. "

Hmmm... anyway, i will keep trying...

Ta!

[John]

If it helps at all, my understanding is that it is rare for the referees to actually be contacted by IND once the application has been submitted. OK, there might be some checks made in the background .... does the passport number actually tie up with the named person, and indeed is the referee actually at least 25 years old, but certainly neither of my wife's referees were personally contacted and speaking to other people that seems to be the norm.

I think you need to persevere and find two British Citizens who have known you at least three years and who are now at least 25 years old. Maybe someone who has known you for many years? In my wife's case, one of her referees was the Christian missionary who converted her to Christianity over 20 years ago. Hopefully the number of years shown on the form, "21 years", looked a bit impressive.

The other referee was the Pastor of the Church we attend. My wife first arrived in the UK on 14.04.01 and first went to our Church and met the Pastor on Easter Sunday, 15.04.01. He agreed to sign the form, but not until 15.04.04! The form was taken to him that morning, and then promptly taken to the Post Office and posted to IND, who thus received the completed form and supporting documents just 3 years and 2 days after my wife first arrived in the UK. She attended a Citizenship Ceremony on 09.06.04, so as you will see the application was dealt with quite promptly.

So, "UK Resident" if there is a religious place you attend, anyone there that can help you? Or neighbours? Clubs or associations you belong to?