Can I start for naturalization now?

[walesP]

Hi I'm new in this forum. Today I received my ILR as I applied in mid February 2006. ( after 4 years ELR) Many say that in order to apply for naturalizaion, one needs to wait for 1 year after getting ILR. So formula is 4+1. But I have been living here for more than 5 years.

Can I do it? If so I will start to prepare for the test.

I have to start a new thread as I couldn't find the info I need. Can some one give me a link regarding my question?

Thanks
walesP

[TintinHerge]

Hi

As far as I know, you have to be on ILR for a year before you can apply for naturalizaion. If the IND website was any good, we cud have looked it up for you

[John]

In your circumstances you can apply for Naturalisation as British as soon as you have held the ILR for one year.

But in the meantime there is nothing to stop you studying for and hopefully passing the Citizenship Test. Indeed you might want to get that test out of the way so that you can indeed apply for ILR in a year's time.

[Kayalami]

IIRC there are clauses in the BNA pertaining to waiver of residence requirements where it has taken IND 'unduly long' to process a straight forward case to ILR usually where documents have been lost. ELR to ILR is not straightforward. Add to this that your application would go in a 'secondary' non straightforward nationality caseworking group to review you meeting the exceptions that can only increase processing times and I would sit out the 1 year on ILR then apply. The forum is full of 2 week turn around times for naturalisation. If you have a compelling reason of national importance such as joining the intelligence services then that's a different story although by virtue of British Nationality being a pre-requisite these types of applications are as rare as hen's teeth .

[walesP]

But when I check this forum's page, I think a liitle bit different. Not mention about ILR 1 year.
http://www.workpermit.com/uk/naturalisation.htm

thanks

[supertiger]

If you are not married to an UK Citizen you will need to meet the following residence requirements over the last five years.

You must have been living in the UK exactly five years before the date the application reaches the Home Office; and
During the five-year period you must not have been outside the United Kingdom for more than 450 days (about 15 months); and
During the last 12 months of the five-year period you must not have been outside the UK for more than 90 days; and
During the last 12 months of the five-year period your stay in the United Kingdom you must have held permanent residence/ indefinite leave to remain (ILR); and
You must not have been living in the United Kingdom in breach of the UK immigration rules at any time during the five-year period ending with the date that the application is received by the Home Office.

[ppron747]

But when I check this forum's page, I think a liitle bit different. Not mention about ILR 1 year.
http://www.workpermit.com/uk/naturalisation.htm
thanks

I'm afraid that you have misread it - the section on residence requirements definitely includes a bullet point reading "During the last 12 months of the five-year period your stay in the United Kingdom you must have held permanent residence/ indefinite leave to remain (ILR);... "
Have another look

[John]

There is a proviso to this 12 month rule but as we are told .... "Today I received my ILR as I applied in mid February 2006." ..... it does not apply here.

That is, if there is a long delay in IND deciding to grant ILR, but it is granted eventually, then an application for naturalisation can be submitted but not earlier than 15 months after the application for ILR was submitted. And this applies only when the cause of the delay is nothing to do with the applicant.

A couple of examples :-

• Someone applied for ILR on say 2nd January 2005 and it eventually gets granted on say 1st September 2005, the delay not being their fault. So at this point in time they have not had their ILR for 12 months but nevertheless as it is more than 15 months since they applied for ILR they can apply for naturalisation now.
• Someone else applied for their ILR in April 2004 and though no fault of them they get their ILR today! They can apply for naturalisation immediately.

But walesP, none of this helps you because your ILR application took less than 3 months to process.

[mark123]

I wonder if any one can advice me here , in the past I had ELR for 4 years and eventually I received ILR , I applied for Naturalisation back in Jun 2006 and until now I am still waiting , every time when I call them they reply with this standard reply " Waiting for External checks " , when I ask how long that will take as its now almost a year with them , they say we can not tell how long it will take, so I asked them ,is it some thing to worry about ? is there any thing wrong with my application, they say no every thing is fine Just wait, but for how long ? , no one knows !!! ,,,, the thing that made me really worried today that I heard about some one his application has been waiting for almost 2 years now ! , I am really worried and I don't know what to do .

[John]

I think you are fully justified in contacting the MP for the area in which you live and asking him/her to make enquiries at the Home Office on your behalf.