NATURALISATION APPLICATION WITH MOTORING OFFENCE

[Brejoiner1990]

Good afternoon everyone
I have a question regarding the naturalisation of an EU citizen who has had settled status for 4 years and has been a resident for 10 years.

He had been convicted for causing death by careless driving in 2021 and was sentenced to do community work and received a driving ban for 12 months. There was no prison sentence or suspended sentence.
This type of conviction certainly falls under the category of crimes causing serious harm.
However, since it was not intentional and it is the only conviction in his criminal record, would it make sense to apply and request exceptional granting of citizenship? Would this sort of crime, when there is no malicious intent, still classify someone as not having good character?
He works as a doctor in the NHS and can collect many character reference letters from other physicians and has relevant P60s. He still drives and has 0 points on his licence and no other bans or restrictions.

Would waiting for longer provide more evidence regarding his good character (provided no other offence occurs)? Also, even though the guidance has changed, is it still better to wait exactly 3 years since the conviction date?

He fulfils all other criteria for naturalisation/citizenship.

Any advice would be welcome

[contorted_svy]

For something that involves death I would advise speaking to a solicitor.

[Brejoiner1990]

Update for the above application which can be useful for those who apply for naturalisation with a crinimnal record:

The EU citizen who applied having been convicted for causing death by careless driving had his application accepted and the citizenship ceremony is in October.

Despite the criminal record, the application only took 2 months to be processed following the biometrics appointment and the outcome was positive. There was nothing else on the criminal record and there were no points or fines on the driving licence record. The sentence for the above was community service, 12 months driving ban and no prison setence.

The immigration solicitor said that despite the harm caused (death in our case) , that conviction alone may be insufficient for an application rejection. The "Good character requirement" in the guidelines states that for crimes causing harm usually applications are refused. However, the solicitor suggested that this mostly refers to crimes of violence and intention, not accidental cause of harm, like in a car accident.
Therefore, that offence alone would be difficult to justify that somebody is not of good character if everything else was clean.
That turned out to be true.

So, if anyone is afraid of applying for British citizenship due to driving offences, keep the above in mind and best of luck in your applications.

[AmazonianX]

Update for the above application which can be useful for those who apply for naturalisation with a crinimnal record:

The EU citizen who applied having been convicted for causing death by careless driving had his application accepted and the citizenship ceremony is in October.

Despite the criminal record, the application only took 2 months to be processed following the biometrics appointment and the outcome was positive. There was nothing else on the criminal record and there were no points or fines on the driving licence record. The sentence for the above was community service, 12 months driving ban and no prison setence.

The immigration solicitor said that despite the harm caused (death in our case) , that conviction alone may be insufficient for an application rejection. The "Good character requirement" in the guidelines states that for crimes causing harm usually applications are refused. However, the solicitor suggested that this mostly refers to crimes of violence and intention, not accidental cause of harm, like in a car accident.
Therefore, that offence alone would be difficult to justify that somebody is not of good character if everything else was clean.
That turned out to be true.

So, if anyone is afraid of applying for British citizenship due to driving offences, keep the above in mind and best of luck in your applications.

Congratulations.
And thank you for the detailed update.