Allowed Absence Types for Naturalization

[BluePhoenix]

Hi,

I have received my ILR BRP on 4th August 2020. I had Tier 2G before that. Next year I will be applying for British Citizenship via Naturalization.

I know that I should not have more than 90 days absence from the UK within next 12 months. But what type of absences are allowed?

This year, when I applied for ILR, I read that it should either be a Leave, approved by the employer, or a business trip. I was working from my home country within the past 5 years, and I had to provide with medical papers of my mother to explain why I have worked from abroad remotely.

Do we have the term "allowed absences" for Naturalization process?
Is it only approved leaves and business trips accepted as absences for Naturalization process?
I read that citizenship application is being processed on a different law, hence my question. If they will only count my absences without questioning the absence reasons/types then I will feel more comfortable to stay and work remotely from abroad for 1-2 weeks until my citizenship application next year.

If this is going to raise a yellow flag and require explanation, I will prefer not to bother and just stay abroad for holidays and return back to the UK. Because I don't want the caseworker to become suspicious and get confused and then potentially reject my application. If there is a little risk I will not take it. If there is no risk at all,then I can work remotely around 10 days from my home country, why not.

Tier 2G to ILR process had terms like "continuous break", "allowed absences". No matter how hard I searched for the same topic for Naturalization, I don't seem to find any document explaining absences in details for it.

Thanks in advance.

[londonent]

For naturalization all absences are absences and counted as such. if you go over 90 days then you must have compassionate reasons for having more absences than the allowed 90 in the last year and 450 in the last 5 years

[secret.simon]

Any absence from the UK counts as absence. There are no multiple types.

Keep in mind that naturalisation is not a part of the immigration process, which ends at ILR. Naturalisation is done by different teams, under different laws and different regulations. So do not equate the two processes.

[BluePhoenix]

Thank you for the replies

For ILR (I am aware that it is under a different law), I meant this one:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... gov-uk.pdf

There is a title on this document says: "Absences which will not break continuity in the continuous period"
And it says: Approved Leaves and Business Trips are the Allowable absences

So from your comments what I understand is that, since I have my ILR BRP already, there is no such thing as "continuous period" for me anymore, because immigration process ended at ILR. That is the reason why there is no criteria such as; "Absences which will break continuity" or "absences which will not break continuity" and also the term "allowable absences" doesn't exist on the law for naturalization.

Am I getting this correct?

[alterhase58]

I think you got it but here's how I summarise it:

First, note that Naturalisation is not an immigration application, where things like timings, absences, income, etc count a lot. You are dealing with British nationality law.

Once you have ILR you are "free from immigration time restrictions" and you can come and go as you wish, except if you stay out of country for more than two years in which case you are likely to loose ILR status.

For naturalisation all that is asked for is your absences and these are defined in terms of days rather than type of absence, so everything absence counts like vacations, family visits, business travel, medical treatment, bereavement travel, and even travel delays due to the pandemic. There is some discretion around the numbers. You may already have the guidance document: https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... n-guidance. There's no specific formula for calculating absences, except that travel days out and back to the UK are not counted.

[CR001]

Thank you for the replies

For ILR (I am aware that it is under a different law), I meant this one:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... gov-uk.pdf

There is a title on this document says: "Absences which will not break continuity in the continuous period"
And it says: Approved Leaves and Business Trips are the Allowable absences

So from your comments what I understand is that, since I have my ILR BRP already, there is no such thing as "continuous period" for me anymore, because immigration process ended at ILR. That is the reason why there is no criteria such as; "Absences which will break continuity" or "absences which will not break continuity" and also the term "allowable absences" doesn't exist on the law for naturalization.

Am I getting this correct?

All absences count for citizenship, regardless of what the absence was for. You simply need to meet the absence limit requirements as stated on page 13 of the Nationality Policy Document.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... gov-uk.pdf

[BluePhoenix]

Hi,

I have paid for an answer using an online service and I would like to share it here so that it will be useful for other people:

There are two answers from the same solicitor.

First answer:
"The policy for absences when you apply to naturalise is different from when you apply for ILR. You do not need to state the reason for absence and the Home Office do have a policy where they can exercise thier discretion."

And then I have asked this:
"Hi, Thank you for the answer. Is it possible to answer this one please:
If total absences are less than 90 days within last 12 months and less than 450 days within last 5 years, is working remotely from a different country, as an absence, a reason for the rejection of the Naturalization application?"

And this is the second answer:
"Hi, I can confirm that it will not be a reason for rejection as the Home Office are not concerned at that stage the reason for the absence as long as you have not exceeded the 90 days."

What I understand from this including your valuable replies to this post:
The Home Office will count it as an absent but they will not reject my UK citizenship application because of working remotely for 1-2 weeks, eventhough it is not a paid annual leave or a business trip. Because they only count the amount of absences in numbers, they don't question or intent to validate "the reason" for the absences. Validation of an absence (to see whether it is allowable or not) is an ILR application thing, not a thing for Citizenship application.

Thank you for having this forum and keeping it alive.

[alterhase58]

Good to see that the paid for service confirms public UKVI guidance and provided here on the forum.