I’ve been collating all my questions to post in a single topic for the online application for naturalisation i'm in the middle of filling in, and I’m hoping someone can help me get a bit more clarity on them. Apologies if these are repeated elsewhere, I tried to look before I posted this. Some general information - I moved here in Sept 2009 as a student, from EU. Got my settlement scheme approved in 2018 so going to be applying with that. So my qualifying dates are from 2015 onwards.
1. I’ve been trying to understand what the overall order of the proccess is and I wanted to check if I’ve got it right - first I complete the online form, check all my details, then pay, and only then I upload documents afterwards somewhere external (as in not during the application)?
- Is there a time limit of how quickly one can do that?
- Does it supply a checklist of what documents you’re required to upload, or is that your judgment to make as to what is enough?
- Are clear photos of the documents (taken with a camera) ok, or do they need to definitely be scanned? JPG or PDF?
3. Re my references - They’re two British friends - one of them owns a marketing company so I’m hoping he fits as a referee with the correct job criteria of ‘professional standing’ as he’s a CEO of a VAT registered company ? The other one is a software designer and I know him as a personal friend.
- Are those sufficient?
- For the CEO of a company one, is it ok to say my relationship to them is a close friend?
5. For documentation - it asks for 10 years employment in the form which I have added, but for the documents do I have to provide 10 years worth of evidence or only for the last 5 years as part of the application? I’ve been steadily employed since 2013 so I have reliable p60s since, but anything before that is pretty shady unreliable documentations so I’m hoping that’s not needed! I have seen contradicting messages on this so not sure.
6. Speaking of past history, I have entered all my past employment history and travel outside of uk history from most recent to oldest - is this correct? I haven’t seen any guidance as to what order it should be in and if that makes a difference? Someone here kindly replied to me before that the order shouldn’t be an issue so I think I’ll leave it as it is.
Thanks so much in advance for any help on any of these and I hope all of these are ok to ask!