Naturalisation application and marriage in parallel

[andr3y]

Background:

I am planning to apply for naturalisation at the end of February 2020 and I understand that waiting times can be up to 6 months for the majority of the cases. I have been holding an ILR for 1 year now after 5 years on Tier 2.

I am also planning to marry my partner this year early enough to allow her to switch to the Spouse Visa from her Tier 4, which ends in February 2021. This will also take time, given we are not married yet and haven't submitted our notice.

Given the worst timing it might take to obtain the passport, I think I might need to do two in parallel, apply for naturalisation first, and then if no decision comes within 3-4 months, start the marriage process. 6 months will be too long to complete everything on time.

Question:

Is it allowed to change the marital status while the naturalisation application is under review?
If yes, are there any implications on the timing and/or decision of the application should I decide to do this?

[CR001]

The two issues are completely separate and not relevant to each other really.

Is it allowed to change the marital status while the naturalisation application is under review?

Life doesn't get put on hold simply due to applying fro citizenship. You are free to continue as normal. There is no requirement to hold a British passport to marry someone on a Tier 4 visa.

If yes, are there any implications on the timing and/or decision of the application should I decide to do this?

No.

[andr3y]

Thank you for your reply, @CR001.

I assume there's still a requirement to notify the Home Office in case of a change of the marital status while the application is under review? If yes, how can one do that?

[CR001]

No there is not.

Note that in order to marry, you have to give notice to an HO approved registry office, who will then inform HO who can extend the notice period from 28 to 70 days to possibly investigate and/or interview each of you separately before they grant permission for you to marry. So HO would be aware, regardless of your citizenship application.

[TheDon]

FYI you don't need to be a citizen to sponsor your spouse. I have just applied to sponsor my wife and I'm currently on ILR. I was due to apply for Naturalisation late last year but decided to postpone that as we planned our wedding and applied for her Spouse visa - that was obviously the priority and didn't want delays by my application to interfere with her application. Your ILR probably has 5+ years left on it. After you've got your other half's visa sorted then you can take your time with your naturalisation application.

We're currently waiting for my wife's visa to be processed. Start filling the Family Visa (Spouse) application online - you'll get ahead of all the things you'll need.

I have a question to tag onto your thread that I hope someone can help with:

I'm waiting for my wife's Spouse visa to be decided on. I'm acting as her sponsor, I'm currently on ILR and I'm eligible for naturalisation. Can I submit my Naturalisation application now before they've decided on my wife's application or will that interfere with her application as I'm acting as her sponsor on my ILR settled status? Trying to be efficient but don't want to cause avoidable problems?

Thanks

[andr3y]

@CR001, what you are saying makes sense, thanks for replying once again.

I spoke to the Home Office twice yesterday and I got conflicting guidance:
- one representative told me that there is no requirement to notify them
- another one told me that I need to notify via sending them a letter, otherwise this might be treated as deceit, since I will be specifying my marital status on the application which will then change. This representative wasn't able to refer to any specific guidance as I asked for it.

So I am confused.

I will try and sort it out with them once again today.

[Zerubbabel]

Hello

The application has to be true at the date you sign it and submit it.

Citizenship applications may take months to be processed. During this time, plenty of details you entered may change: like you address, marital status (by marriage, divorce, death...), you travel history...

As long as the details are correct once you submit, nobody can use future changes to accuse you of deception on past application. That makes no sense at all. If it was the case, we could take any application anyone submitted in the past, compare it to changes that occurred later and accuse the person of deception

When I applied for my own citizenship, I got my documents controlled by the Council (No longer possible now) and the guy explained to me that they don't care about what occurs after. The only thing is that your application must be true and accurate when you submit it.

With that in mind, if you feel better notifying them, you can do it. Nobody is going to hold it against you. Just send them a follow up letter. If they don't care, they would just discard it or record it somewhere. But it's not going to hurt your application doing something not necessary.