Residential requirement - how are absences actually verified

[eeaman01]

Hi,

My wife (a non-EEA spouse) and I (EEA citizen exercising Treaty rights in the UK) are eligible for naturalization and would like to file a joint application for British citizenship.

However, my wife travels a lot, so she has had numerous absences from the UK, which we never tracked. We can vaguely recall the number of trips but not the duration and we are very concerned about the success of our application. (As per materials referenced earlier by others on this forum, around a quarter of all UK naturalization refusals are due to failure to fulfill the residential requirement.)

1a) How are we supposed to fill out section 2.2 ("details of all basences from the UK") when we don't know the absences any more? Just a best guess? Or leave it empty and enclose a good-faith declaration letter stating she believes she has not been absent more than required?

1b) If we can't supply the details, will that cause our application to be refused?

2) Should we maybe write SARs to all airlines she knows she used and use their responses as evidence? Or will UKBA do that on their own?

3) How will the UKBA be able to determine the precise figure? In practice, what physical/digital investigation procedures do UKBA internally conduct for verifying the residential requirement? What access to what information will they draw on if we don't supply any?

4) Non-EEA spouses passports aren't supposed to get stamped on entry. Exits by air are recorded only on flight manifests when a person actually boards a plane. Exits by car or train are probably fully untracked. What evidence is out there to draw on (whether accessible to us or to UKBA)?

Thanks.

[Jambo]

1a) fill in to the best of your knowledge. Try to find email (tickets, boarding passes). Never lie or "forget" a long absence.

1b) Don't know if it will get refused but definitely delay it.

2) No need.

3) Does it matter? You should do your part. Don't lie. If you are not close to the threshold, I would not worry too much of you miss some short trips. The HO will do their part but unless it looks like you were trying to hide absences that brought you significantly above the threshold I would not worry.

4) Use your own records. I would not invest in going further than that.

[eeaman01]

That's exactly the problem. We feel we are close to the limit (maybe even over!) but are very worried because we're not sure. And we certainly don't want to lie! I am looking for facts on what actually happens / how absences are investigated by UKBA. Without that, it's impossible for us to assess our risks.

[Jambo]

* Are you aware that you don't count the day of departure and the day of arrival (so only full 24 hours outside the UK count).

* Are you aware that this requirement is subject to discretion? The HO will normally disregard absences upto 480 days (and even more than that - see Residence requirements - guidance to caseworker).

[eeaman01]

We are aware that departure and arrival days don't count as absences. We are also aware that there is discretion. I read the caseworker guidance notes in the past and they are indeed encouraging.

However, the core of my question is as stated before and still remains open: In practice, what physical/digital investigation procedures do UKBA internally conduct for verifying the residential requirement?

I realize this is a "back stage" type of question but that's what I am interested if anyone knows.

[AlexS]

Hi eeaman, I was in a similar case to your wife, I travel quite a lot (but not enough to be near the limit), and since I used the Iris system to enter back, I had almost no UK stamp in my passport. But I did have entry and exit stamps for other countries, so I took the job of making a list of all the places I went from those stamps. I compile this list in a Google docs spreadsheet, and I added the page of the passport where the respective stamp was.
I had no problem in this area, and my application was approved.

If your wife was travelling mostly for work, and works for a UK company, I don't think she'll have a problem. I would add a note explaining the situation, and I think it'll be OK.

[thsths]

However, the core of my question is as stated before and still remains open: In practice, what physical/digital investigation procedures do UKBA internally conduct for verifying the residential requirement?

I think it is quite obvious that they do not want that to be widely known.

I would assume that they check the dates provided by you against the information available to them. So you should try to get all the dates right if you can, or at least state the general period and duration of the travels undertaken.

[cs95tdg]

3) How will the UKBA be able to determine the precise figure? In practice, what physical/digital investigation procedures do UKBA internally conduct for verifying the residential requirement? What access to what information will they draw on if we don't supply any?

e-borders is one system they have access to.

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/custo ... assengers/