Spouse of BC and 3 years qualifying period

[SamcoSamco]

Hi,

Could anyone please advise on when I can apply for Citizenship.
I have been granted ILR recently and I am married to a British citizen. In 2008, I entered the UK clandestinely and claimed asylum a few days after. My asylum claim was refused and I appealed the decision until I was granted DL in 2012.

I have heard that the 10 years before the citizenship application must be without any breaches of immigration requirements. Then, I have found this statement in the Nationality policy: Naturalisation as
a British citizen by discretion:

"Applicants who made an asylum claim whilst in the UK illegally (for example, as an
overstayer or following clandestine entry), will have been in the UK in breach of the
immigration laws until they were granted leave to remain in the UK. They will be in
breach throughout the period when the application (and any subsequent appeal) was
being considered. This will have been the case whether or not they were given
temporary admission following detection."


This statement implies that the time spent in appealing my asylum refusal (from 2008 until 2012) will be in breach of immigration rules. Subsequently, I should wait until 2022 to have 10 years clear of immigration breaches before I can apply for citizenship. Am I right here or is there more details that I don't know about? Please advise.

Thanks in advance

[cyclina1]

Yes. You need to wait until 2022.

[SamcoSamco]

Thanks Cyclina1.

I am worried the citizenship process might get more complicated and expensive in future, especially after Brexit.

[CR001]

Citizenship has nothing to do with brexit. Nationality law is only relevant to the UK and not to the EU.

[SamcoSamco]

Thanks CR001.

I have been looking through the citizenship questions in this forum and I found participants who mentioned that as long as you present yourself to the immigration authorities as an Asylum seeker within 30 days of the illegal entry, the caseworker can use her or his discretion to disregard the immigration breaches.
This was also stated in the Nationality policy: Naturalisation as a British citizen by discretion:
“the person arrived the UK clandestinely but either presented themself without
delay to the immigration authorities or was detected by the immigration authorities shortly after arrival:
- the maximum period involved should normally be 1 month, but may be longer if there are extenuating circumstances
- in these cases you can waive the breach that occurred from entry until the person’s first application for leave or asylum was determined, provided the application was granted”

I am studying the UKVI naturalisation documents carefully to assess if I can apply ASAP with best chance of success.

I would appreciate if more members provide their valuable advice here and shed more light on this point.

Thanks

[SamcoSamco]

Is there anyone with similar circumstances to mine -mentioned above? and willing to share his/her citizenship experience here

[SamcoSamco]

Hi all,

I have been granted ILR after 6 years of Discretionary leave, and I am married to a British citizen.
Could anyone please advise if I can apply now for naturalisation or should wait 12 months after ILR?

Thanks

[Casa]

Hi all,

I have been granted ILR after 6 years of Discretionary leave, and I am married to a British citizen.
Could anyone please advise if I can apply now for naturalisation or should wait 12 months after ILR?

Thanks

Providing you meet all the standard requirements (permitted absence, KOLL, good characte etc.), you can apply without waiting to complete a 12 month period following ILR.

[SamcoSamco]

Thanks for the prompt reply Casa.

[CR001]

Topics merged.

[SamcoSamco]

Hi CR001 and CASA,

I would like to thank you and all the other participants and moderators for contributing to this helpful and informative platform.

If you can check my previous posts from Aug 2018, you can see that I have been looking at the Naturalisation guide docs and policies trying to find answers for my situation.

I am confused because the Good Character Requirement policy and the Naturalisation as a British citizen by discretion policy recommend different approaches to deal with illegal entry.

Beginning of 2008, I entered the UK illegally as I mentioned in my previous post. This was more than 10 years ago.

Apart from this I don’t have any other civil criminal or immigration issues.

Could you please advise if this can still be a problem if I apply now?

I do apologies for repeating this question.

Many thanks

[secret.simon]

You have answered your own question.

This was also stated in the Nationality policy: Naturalisation as a British citizen by discretion:
“the person arrived the UK clandestinely but either presented themself without
delay to the immigration authorities or was detected by the immigration authorities shortly after arrival:
- the maximum period involved should normally be 1 month, but may be longer if there are extenuating circumstances
- in these cases you can waive the breach that occurred from entry until the person’s first application for leave or asylum was determined, provided the application was granted”

My asylum claim was refused and I appealed the decision until I was granted DL in 2012.

There is discretion to ignore the breach of immigration rules if you applied for asylum within a month of arrival in the UK (or soon thereafter) AND that application was successful. Your initial asylum application was unsuccessful, and you appealed before you were subsequently granted DL. As I understand it, DL means that you do not have asylum status. Therefore, the caseworker need not exercise discretion in your case.

You are best off applying in 2022.

[SamcoSamco]

Many thanks secret.simon.

This was my understanding as well until I read this statement in the Good Character policy:

“9.5 Illegal Entry
In circumstances where an applicant entered the UK illegally, an application for citizenship should normally be refused for a period of 10 years from the date of entry, if it is known. If it is not known, the period of 10 years starts from the date on which the person first brought themselves to or came to the attention of the Home Office.”

And I think, but NOT sure, that the statement I quoted in my first post from (The Naturalisation as a British citizen by discretion: nationality policy guidance) is for the purpose of the residence requirements and qualifying period

If this understanding was correct, it would be ok to apply now because the immigration breach following illegal entry was not in the qualifying period of 3 years prior to the Naturalisation application.

I am thinking out loud here but still not sure.

Thanks all for your input.