As you will know, naturalisation applicants are normally expected not to be outside UK for more than 450 days in the five year residence requirement, and this is one area where the Home Secretary has a great deal of flexibility - he can ignore absences exceeding the 450 day total. But he cannot dispense with the residence requirement altogether; the applicant must have been in UK on a day exactly five years before the application is submitted.tt wrote:Is there such a waiver possible under the present BNA1981 with respect to residency periods?
I think the point is that although there is discretion, the Home Secretary has to be very careful in exercising it. There are no secrets in this day and age, and the tendency for people to apply for judicial review is very strong. If he were to use his discretion to waive an excessive amount of the residence requirement, and naturalise some public figure, it would surely get out, and he would face judicial review applications from the dozens/hundreds of "ordinary" people whose applications had been refused because he'd declined to use his discretion in their cases.