Excessive Absences for Naturalisation

[Usmana5]

Hello everyone.

I was on Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa and had to travel during my ILR to oversee business abroad. I was granted ILR in Jan 2020 (with 900 Absences) I travelled immediately after my ILR when I went to my country to visit my family Global pandemic started & I was stuck in my country for 660 days where during that my wife got pregnant & had to stay due to complicated pregnancy & my father passed away & also couldn’t travel back because borders got closed for 4 months & then my country came on red list for 8 months.(660 days in total) . I finally came back after my country was taken off red list. Now after 1 year of staying in the UK I’m about to apply for my naturalisation but my absence’s are exactly 1000 days in past 5 years of which 660 days are due to covid & father passing away. Without covid it’s 350 days . I will be giving evidence of my fathers death certificate and flights cancellation and my employment letter and healthy bank statement to show ties I know they discretion is max 900 days so what are the chances they will accept my application?

[Ticktack]

Hello everyone.

I was on Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa and had to travel during my ILR to oversee business abroad. I was granted ILR in Jan 2020 (with 900 Absences) I travelled immediately after my ILR when I went to my country to visit my family Global pandemic started & I was stuck in my country for 660 days where during that my wife got pregnant & had to stay due to complicated pregnancy & my father passed away & also couldn’t travel back because borders got closed for 4 months & then my country came on red list for 8 months.(660 days in total) . I finally came back after my country was taken off red list. Now after 1 year of staying in the UK I’m about to apply for my naturalisation but my absence’s are exactly 1000 days in past 5 years of which 660 days are due to covid & father passing away. Without covid it’s 350 days . I will be giving evidence of my fathers death certificate and flights cancellation and my employment letter and healthy bank statement to show ties I know they discretion is max 900 days so what are the chances they will accept my application?

Honestly, in my opinion, your chances are 0. Someone else might have a different view. Wait till your absences are reduced to 450 days in the last 5 years and 90 days in the last year preceding you application.

COVID-19 is no excuse. If you really wanted to come back, you would have found a way to do that. Hypothetically speaking, if your visa was expiring whilst you were out there, I'm sure you would have found a way to re-enter the UK, to avoid getting locked out or losing your residency.

[Bash_]

Hello everyone.

I was on Tier 1 Entrepreneur visa and had to travel during my ILR to oversee business abroad. I was granted ILR in Jan 2020 (with 900 Absences) I travelled immediately after my ILR when I went to my country to visit my family Global pandemic started & I was stuck in my country for 660 days where during that my wife got pregnant & had to stay due to complicated pregnancy & my father passed away & also couldn’t travel back because borders got closed for 4 months & then my country came on red list for 8 months.(660 days in total) . I finally came back after my country was taken off red list. Now after 1 year of staying in the UK I’m about to apply for my naturalisation but my absence’s are exactly 1000 days in past 5 years of which 660 days are due to covid & father passing away. Without covid it’s 350 days . I will be giving evidence of my fathers death certificate and flights cancellation and my employment letter and healthy bank statement to show ties I know they discretion is max 900 days so what are the chances they will accept my application?

I agree with TickTack that almost a year stuck with covid should be no excuse as there were multiple opportunities to come back. However, the Home office doesn't waste any minute without taking COVID as an excuse to delay applications so why shouldn't you?

Nevertheless, the guidance is pretty clear wrt >900 days of absences.

Only very rarely would we disregard absences in excess of 900 days (540
days for section 6(2) applications). If your absences are more than this limit
your application is likely to fail and your fee will not be fully refunded.

So keep your money and apply when the chance of success is more likely.