How Will an Unknown Conviction From 2010, That Surfaced in 2018, Affect an Application for Naturalisation in 2021?

[Cafm1992]

Hello all,

Thank you in advance for any help regarding the below question.

My mother in law is preparing to apply for naturalisation following 6 years discretionary leave to remain and several years of indefinite leave to remain, and we have a few queries we are hoping to clear up before applying.

My question relates to the English-speaking requirement for citizenship and whether we can use a 2014 certificate or whether we will have to take a new test, as we do not want to risk the application being refused due to this.

The 2014 certificate is:

“Trinity College London
Grade 5 Graded Examination is Spoken English
Entry Level Certificate in ESOL International
(Speaking and listening) (Entry 3)
B1.1 of the CEFR
With Distinction
English Exam Centres (SELT Centre) – June 2014”

In 2011 she was granted DLR and in 2014 she applied to extend her DLR. During this application she took the LITUK test and the English-speaking test and provided the certificates, although this was not a requirement for those with DLR.

In 2017 she applied for ILR and provided the same certificates again, although it was not a requirement for ILR following DLR.

My question is related to this section on page 11 of “Knowledge of language and life in the UK Version 27.0”
“A person who successfully made an indefinite leave to remain (ILR) application on the basis of a B1 level qualification can meet the English language requirement for naturalisation without needing to pass another qualification, but will be required to pass the Life in the UK test if they have not already done so.”

As she was eligible for ILR based on DLR without providing evidence of English language, are we able to use the certificate although it likely did not impact whether her grant of ILR and DLR extension was successful or not?

Or is it advisable that she takes a new test?

Thank you for any help.

[CR001]

She needs a new test.

She can only use an expired certificate if it was required and used in a previous application. This does not apply to her

[Cafm1992]

I thought that might be the case, I will get her to arrange a new one.

Thank you for your reply CR001.

[CR001]

Note that if she is over 65 years of age, she doesn't need the English and liuk tests.

[Cafm1992]

Thank you, unfortunately she isn't able to benefit from that for a while.

[Cafm1992]

Hello all,

Apologies for the wall of text and thank you in advance for any help regarding the below question.

I am looking for advice regarding the good character requirement for a British citizenship application.
My mother-in-law entered the UK in October 1998 on a visitor visa with her two young children at the time. Due to financial and other unfortunate circumstances, the family were unable to renew their visas in 2006 and remained in the UK illegally until February 2011. At this time, my mother in law was working without permit and was caught by immigration who gave her the opportunity to apply for leave to remain. She was successfully granted discretionary leave to remain for 3 years.

She was granted indefinite leave to remain in September 2018 following several discretionary leave applications being granted.

It has been 10 years since she was caught overstaying/working illegally, which I understand is the time required to elapse after breaking immigration rules. She is preparing to apply for naturalisation now and satisfies all criteria to have this granted. However, in August 2018, a previous and unknown conviction came to light, in the form of a debt collector letter to a previous address from 2009. She became aware of this coincidentally having recently re-connected with the family that live at that address, who she had rented the house from until Dec 2009. If she had not been in contact with this family, she would not have received the letter and would have remained unaware of this conviction.

The letter stated that it was in pursuit of a “Warrant of control” to the value of £330, issued January 2010 from the local magistrate’s court. Following receiving this letter, we called the county court to check if this was genuine and to our surprise it was. It related to a tax disc being paid with a cheque that bounced and the DVLA had taken her to court as a result. However, my mother in law has not had a car registered in her name since she came to the UK and it became apparent that her ex-husband must have registered the car in her name without her knowledge.

We also contacted the DVLA to get more information. We were advised that a written request would have to be made and could take while to recover and send the information found in the archive. We sought legal advice through our workplace union who stated that our options were to make a statutory declaration to the courts within 21 days, or to pay the fine.

I spoke to a clerk at the county court again, who advised that a statutory declaration would not be possible due to 8 years passing and, although this was not in line with the legal advice we received, it did dampen our confidence in pursuing this route.

My mother in law was anxious to make this situation right ASAP as she was aware of her upcoming application for naturalisation. There were also a few challenges for her in pursuing it as the county court was 30 miles from her home and she couldn’t drive. She was also frightened by the thought of going to court and the fact that she would struggle to get time off as a member of school staff. For this reason, she opted to pay the fine instead.

This was paid within 10 days of becoming aware of the outstanding fine. It should also be noted, that we perhaps naively did not think that the fine would be counted as a criminal conviction until we studied the AN guidance form and by then, far too long had elapsed to make a statutory declaration to the court. I now worry that the decision to pay the fine may become extremely detrimental for her naturalisation application.

Please may you advise whether this will be the case?

It should be noted that on all previous HO applications, the conviction was never questioned by caseworkers. The family did not receive NI numbers until 2011 after their discretionary leave was granted. I wonder if this could be an explanation.

We plan to provide a cover letter, explaining the entire situation.

My questions are:
1. As this conviction was from 2010 will it have retroactive consequences for her previous applications in 2011,2014 and 2017? As a criminal conviction was never declared as it was never known about.
2. Non-custodial offences result in refusal for 3 years. Will this apply from the date of her conviction in 2010 or from the date that the fine was paid 2018?
3. Given that granting citizenship is discretionary, should we aim to provide additional information and character references?

Thank you for any help.