SAR and checks

[Vinceroger2102]

Hello all

My cousin sister applied for Naturalisation in June and biometrics did on 22nd July, but have not heard anything yet. Kindly suggest, how deep HO digs to find out the status. She has been here since 1995 but forgot to mention a couple of visa information on the form. She thought only the last 10 years is important.

Please suggest, should she withdraw her application to avoid rejection? Or the damage has already been done in the last 3months for deception?

Will she be banned for 10years/3years or get revoked her ILR?

Her children and husband have naturalised and her younger child is 13. She is stressed out now, what is the worst that could happen to her? Thanks for your help.

[alterhase58]

Have you checked the time line thread for naturalisation?
british-citizenship/naturalisation-appl ... l#p2036744
You may be worrying unnecessarily as the full six month processing target has not been reached yet.
I would certainly not withdraw the application - for reasons unknown - it's highly doubtful this would impact the outcome. Over five years or so I have never seen any reports of refusal for making mistakes on the immigration history (and some of the detail is "if known" anyway).
ILR would not be revoked, in any case, should the worst happen. Naturalisation isn't an immigration application.

[Vinceroger2102]

Thaks Secret Simon, much appreciated. She disclosed to me two issues this morning one is she did not complete her 2nd Master's degree course and in the final year (2001) she worked full time due to personal reasons. It was noticed in the N.I. contributions that she worked full time in 2001-02, when she was not allowed to do so. This will certainly not go in her favour, even she worked on workpermit since 2002 then switched on to ILR in 2011. I suggested if she withdraws her application and applies for SAR later on, this will help her make her decision in near future. Please share your thoughts,

[Vinceroger2102]

Sincere apologies, alterhase58
Respected Guru

[alterhase58]

Sincere apologies, alterhase58
Respected Guru

That's ok ...

If you withdraw the application now she will loose the application fee apart from £80 for ceremony not attended.

Working when not allowed falls under "Good Character" which is reviewed going back 10 years, so 2001 is 20 years ago.
And work history is also only for 10 years back.

Again, why don't you wait? An approval might be in the pipeline and should you withdraw you lost that and the fee. If you are refused then you will know the reasons and also loose the fee.

[Vinceroger2102]

Many thanks for your advice, just a question, please. Would they raise the issue that she discontinued her 2nd Master's degree instead she was working full time? Could they contact University for clarification? She got WP in Oct 2002, since then she is working full time. Again, grateful to you for your advice

[Vinceroger2102]

It has been 4months since the application was submitted and 3months for the biometrics. I wonder why does it take so long when they have most of our details in their record?

[alterhase58]

It has been 4months since the application was submitted and 3months for the biometrics. I wonder why does it take so long when they have most of our details in their record?

There is one "Service Level Standard" that UKVI quote for naturalisation: 6 months.
Naturalisation isn't the same as an immigration application (different law and requirements) - I guess it's not just a case of of looking back and ticking boxes.

[Vinceroger2102]

What happens when someone withdraws their application except losing money. Does HO hold those searches/data? or does it starts again when it is reapplied?

[CR001]

Nothing happens other than you lose money.

A new apllication is a new apllication and start of the whole process from scratch again.

You cannot speed up the process

[Vinceroger2102]

Hi all, Kindly reply to the question below. Grateful to you as always

1. Can we apply for SAR whilst the application is under process because its taking so long?

2. How to apply for SAR and will SAR show all the checks they have conducted or they won't give the copies of the checks?

Please share your expertise. Many thanks.

[CR001]

Hi all, Kindly reply to the question below. Grateful to you as always

1. Can we apply for SAR whilst the application is under process because its taking so long?

2. How to apply for SAR and will SAR show all the checks they have conducted or they won't give the copies of the checks?

Please share your expertise. Many thanks.

You have already been advised that the service standard as stated on UKVI website is 6 months. It often takes longer than 6 months.

[Vinceroger2102]

Thank you CR001 for the reply, please answer my query fellow board members.

[secret.simon]

1. Can we apply for SAR whilst the application is under process because its taking so long?

Yes, you can apply for an SAR at any time.

2. How to apply for SAR

Request personal information held in the borders, immigration and citizenship system

will SAR show all the checks they have conducted or they won't give the copies of the checks?

Try it and see. It is done fairly rarely. You may be one of the first to try it out. Update us here.

In any case, the SAR will only turn up things noted in writing on your records. So, for instance, if checks are in progress, there may be no notes until the checks return some data. So, they will not appear in the SAR.

[wootme]

SAR results don't include any results on the checks done, 90% of the case notes are also redacted (blacked out). The most I saw on my SAR under the checks requested section was: BIOGRAPHIC, BIOMETRIC AND AC2. Large portions are blacked out and there's no detail at all about the results.

I think SAR fall under the GDPR legislation. This requires companies to disclose to you any personally identifiable information they have on you, which is basically what the SAR was for me: a long list of documents, applications and records they have of me in different systems but heavily redacted so I couldn't read comments. They even blank out the information about my AN referees for example.

The naturalisation application is listed under the immigration history in the SAR and there is a "last event" field that says "Ready for consideration" which was updated a day after I submitted biometrics. It's been over 4 months since that (got the SAR after I applied) and still waiting.

For all my past applications they also blanked out most of the case notes, the most I could see was short sentences along the lines of "I'm satisfied X requirement is met".

Side note, every page has a footer that reads something like: "Exported by..." and they blanked the name of the person that prepared my SAR... except in one page. So it seems like the SAR is a manual export from different systems and then someone manually blanks out data (looks like they forgot to do it on one page). My SAR took ~70 days so the 30 day SLA is not even close either.

[Vinceroger2102]

Many thanks for your kind reply, its most helpful. What does it mean? BIOGRAPHIC AND AC2.

I will apply for this anyway, hopefully, it will shed some light. Ideally, they should not hide anything. It should be transparent, we have paid for the services.

I wonder it takes so long for some ppl and only a matter of weeks for others, its unfair and we cant track even our progress. Its not cheap either, I think HO should change its way of working at least keep ppl informed.