Naturalisation via Spouse, NI residency proofs

[mrzarquon]

I'm looking to apply later this year, based on being in Northern Ireland for over three years since I've been married to my wife, an Irish/British Citizen (thanks to the De Souza case settlement for making that possible for me to have Pre-Settled Status).

Reviewing the latest Citizenship Guidance Document, I was planning to use my UK tax summaries (P60s) towards 100 points for Residency Proof for the last three years.

For the other 50, would my NI Land & Property Services bill count as utilities? We have these with both our names on them since 2020.

My alternative are bank statements, plenty of POS transactions with NI addresses back to 2020 (since I used it for everything instead of a credit card, while I was able to get one eventually, it was an AMEX which wasn't the greatest for POS transactions).

If I do submit bank statements:
1) Would I need to submit 36 months of printouts or 12 for the year leading up to application + 6 (3 consecutive for the prior two years)
2) Do I need the entire months statement, or just enough pages for each month until 3 POS transactions are present
3) Would it be worth it to explain that I'm including the bank statements as defacto credit card statements, since I have the tax records to be my 100 point criteria, and this as my 50 point one.

[meself2]

For the other 50, would my NI Land & Property Services bill count as utilities? We have these with both our names on them since 2020.

Can you please specify a bit more, what are these and how often are you getting them?
What is usually meant by utility bills here is water/electricity/gas bills, for example, as they're showing you're the one living there.

[chriswickstead]

Land and property services bill is what would be called 'rates'/ council tax/ property tax. In Northern Ireland rates are charged on the owner of the property not the resident. So on a strict reading of residence proof I would say it doesn't count . Whether that distinction is understood by INIS is a different thing. Personally speaking for my wife's naturalisation application we submitted every monthly bank statement showing spending in NI plus gas/electric bills in both names. This was before the points system guidance however.

[Vadrar]

Generally I’d agree with Chiswickstead- though I guess the rates bill shows something similar to a mortgage statement which is a suitable Type B? Ie both are technically ownership, not necessarily residency. Presumably it covers waste collection which is a utility bill.

I’d be tempted to send the rates bill and make sure you have the bank statements to hand in case they ask for additional proof.

[mrzarquon]

Thanks for the clarification, I'm not used to the idea of the rates bill either, so didn't know if that was something INIS was familiar with.

Personally speaking for my wife's naturalisation application we submitted every monthly bank statement showing spending in NI plus gas/electric bills in both names. This was before the points system guidance however.

For the bank statements, did you include the full months record, or just enough to show the minimum amount of transactions for each month? I realize you may have sent everything given the guidance changing - I am just conscious of doing 36 months of bank statements would be a huge envelope and a strict reading of this comment from the latest guidance seems to mean that I only need to include the pages the show activity for each month I need to prove residence:

Please submit only the required amount of proofs specific to your application in year order. Do not send additional proofs or duplicate proofs.

If the UK P60 / HMRC tax forms translate to the P60 requirement in the 100 point category, then I'll plan to use the bank statements for the purchase activity showing that I'm living here for the 50 point category.

[chriswickstead]

Hi,

Yes sent each monthly statement, although they were mainly one pagers and some two pagers to cover the whole month.

With all the papers at the end we actually sent it in a (heavy) large ring binder.

[meself2]

Hi,

Yes sent each monthly statement, although they were mainly one pagers and some two pagers to cover the whole month.

With all the papers at the end we actually sent it in a (heavy) large ring binder.

I think they ask not to put things in a ring binder/etc on Form 8, but what's done is done.