naturalisation - residence requirements absence section

[bhavna]

Dear All,

During the residence requirements for naturalisation application, all absences from last 5 years needs to be listed. I had a small query regarding the relation between date of departure from UK and the actual destination country immigration stamp on the passport.

Sometimes because of flight duration
- Date of departure from UK to India is say 18th July.
- However the arrival to India will be on 19th July. On the passport the india immigration stamp will be 19th July.

So in the naturalisation form do i put date of departure from UK as 18th July or 19th July?

Many Thanks
Bhavna

[John]

Easy ... you put the date you left the UK ... even if you arrived in your destination country the next day.

[Khurram]

Further to John's comments,

Source : Guide AN(NEW)

3.2 Fill in this table showing the periods you have been away from the United Kingdom during the last 5 years (3 years if you are married to a British citizen). Insert the number of days you were away from the United Kingdom in the last column ignoring the day you left and the day you arrived back in the United Kingdom. If there is not enough room for all your absences then continue on page 13. Add up the total and write it in the space indicated.

Regards

[John]

That's right .... but that does not alter the dates of departure and arrival but to the UK.

Say someone went abroad last week, leaving on the Monday and arriving back on the Friday. They would enter 04-07-2005 as the date of departure, 08-07-2005 as the date of return, but only 3 as the number of days abroad.

That is because on only the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was the person abroad for the whole of the day. On both the Monday and the Friday they were in the UK for at least part of the day and therefore those days are ignored when working out the day count.

[bhavna]

as i understand they normally check these dates from the immigration stamps in the passport. So would that be OK if they never find a particular date in the passport?
So for example i left UK on 18th July and arrived in the destination country on 19th July, so i would put 18th July as the date of departure in the form. However they would never found any immigration stamp in the passport for 18th July.

Cheers

[John]

Don't worry about that ... it is not your fault that the UK does not currently have embarkation controls.

Just answer the questions on the form truthfully. So if you left the UK on 18th July then that is the date you would enter on to the form AN(NEW).