BRITISH CITIZENSHIP

[bluemadimor]

hello everyone,

I got my ILR in OCT'2004 and after that i left to India in Nov'2004. came back to UK in Jan' 2006.

Now will i be eligible to apply for citizenship?.

My Son has got the citizenship as he was born in uk.

Are their any claus under which i can apply for the citizenship even with this absence in uk?.

Thank u.

[Dawie]

hello everyone,

I got my ILR in OCT'2004 and after that i left to India in Nov'2004. came back to UK in Jan' 2006.

Now will i be eligible to apply for citizenship?.

My Son has got the citizenship as he was born in uk.

Are their any claus under which i can apply for the citizenship even with this absence in uk?.

Thank u.

The residency requirements for naturalisation state quite clearly that in order to meet the requirements for naturalisation (on the basis of 5 years residency in the UK) the applicant should not have been absent from the UK for more than 90 days in the last 12 months and in addition the total number of days absence for the whole 5 year period before application should not exceed 450 days.

I suggest you read the following guidance notes for further information as there is some scope for discretion:

http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/6353/1 ... uide_A.pdf

From this you can deduce that in order to successfully apply for naturalisation you will have to permanently move back to the UK and stay here long enough so that you don't fall foul of the "90 day rule" and the "450 day rule". I'll leave it up to you to calculate the earliest date on which you can successfully apply for naturalisation but it seems to me that you might just pass the "450 day rule" but fall foul of the 90 day rule. Essentially this means (unless my calculations are incorrect) that you should only have to spend another 9 months (12 months - 3 month permissable absences) in the UK before being able to qualify.

[bluemadimor]

Hello Dawie,

Thank u for such a quick reply. i read the document and calculated all my absence its coming to 546 days till today and i will be completing my 7yrs stay in uk this April.

As per section 2.2 page 16 it says they would disregard the absence upto 900 days only if we show that we have a proper settlement in UK.

Does this mean that i got to buy a house before i apply for the citizenship? or are their any other ways can prove this?

or can i show my intrest to be a citizen as my son is already a citizen?

Thank u!

[John]

i read the document and calculated all my absence its coming to 546 days till today

How is your day count looking in 100 days time? For example if you were to apply say 20th April, is your day count then below 450 days? And indeed were you physically in the UK exactly 5 years before IND would receive the application, that is, on Monday 23rd April 2002?

[bluemadimor]

Hello Jhon,

Here r my dates,

First came to uk--------22 april'00

went on holiday to india on 12th sep'00 till 23rd sep'00

went on holiday to india on 12th feb'02 till 2nd mar'02

went on holiday to india on 4th nov'02 till 14th dec'02

went on holiday to india on 26th feb'04 till 18th mar'04

Got my ILR on 20th aug'04

went on holiday to india on 18th oct'04 till 18th jan'06

at present i am in uk from 18th jan'06 so,.................... i will be completing my 7 yrs in april'07

If u say physically present in uk that will come to 5yrs and 6months after removing all my holidays.

hope this gave a clear view of what i was trying to say.

thank u!

[John]

If u say physically present in uk that will come to 5yrs and 6months after removing all my holidays.

No, you are misinterpreting that. For example, you must not apply for Naturalisation during the period 12th feb'07 till 2nd mar'07 .... simply because you were absent from the UK from 12th feb'02 till 2nd mar'02. As regards that particular test, it is as simple as that.

But let's just suppose you apply on 5th March 2007. Question .... during the period 6th March 2002 to 5th March 2007, how many days were you absent?

4th nov'02 till 14th dec'02 = 39 days
26th feb'04 till 18th mar'04 = 20 days
18th oct'04 till 18th jan'06 = 456 days

A total of 515 days.

You will need to take account of 2.2 in the PDF you already refer to. No you do not need to own a property, but your place of residence clearly needs to be here in the UK.

In any case you might want to wait until say 5th March, because that would mean that your 12th feb'02 till 2nd mar'02 absence would not be counting. Shame you cannot get under 480 days ..... well you could by delaying your application until say 17th December 2007.

And have you already passed the Citizenship Test? If not, do appreciate that you need to enclose a pass certificate from that whenever you make the application.

[bluemadimor]

Hello Jhon,

Thank u, Ur reply was really helpful.

[John]

What are you going to do? Apply in March, or wait until December? And if December is the plan, do ensure you don't leave the UK for more than a day or two before you apply. With a day count of 476 there is not much leeway before you would get over the 480 day mark.

Have you already passed the Citizenship Test, or have you still got that to do?

[bluemadimor]

Its a confussion Jhon! i want to aplly as soon as possible becoz i want to go india for a month.

i was thinking on the grounds of my son's BC i would try this with a lawyer.

what u said is sensible but my circumstances r'nt that good. i really need an other alternative.

Thank u.

[John]

Yes a solicitor or competent OISC-registered adviser might be able to help.

But do appreciate that no one is able to help unless and until you have passed the Citizenship Test .... and also there is a total bar on applying successfully unless it is the case that you were physically in the UK exactly 5 years before IND receive the application. For example, you cannot make an application on say 14th February 2007, simply because you were outside the UK on 14th February 2002.

Again ... have you already passed the Citizenship Test? Without a pass certificate from that, well forget British Citizenship!

[Dawie]

Remember that just because your child is a British citizen does not really make a stronger case for you. This is primarily because you already have ILR and there is no restriction on you living in the UK at the moment. Therefore you could not claim that your human rights are being violated or anything like that by being denied naturalisation.

As far as I can see you will simply have to wait until you meet the residency requirements....simple as that!

[bluemadimor]

Hello Jhon, Dawie and all the members,


Let me clear one thing first yes i passed my citizenship test.


After going through the guidence document once again,

under section 2.2 page 16 they have something called "there is discretion to disregard absences in excess of limits" under wich they have written:

We will disregard absences upto 900 days(540 for husbands wives or civil
partners of British citizens) only if u meet all the other requirements and you
have established your home, family and a substantial part of your estate here.
we would also expect that:
if the absences are upto 730 days we would expect you to have been resident
in the UK for the last 7 years.

i have all valid work permitts of my stay and as i first came to uk in april 2000 till this april 2007 i will be completing my 7yrs of saty in uk,
(in wich my holidays r coming to a total of 546 days)

so, i request all the moderators and the members to guide me if i am eligible to apply for naturalisation under the discretion clause.

Thank u

[John]

I can't see how the 7 year period you mention here helps. As you know the qualifying period for you is 5 years. [Edit] Ah but now I spot the guidance which mentions the 7 year period ... apologies.

Earlier in this topic, on 11.01.07, I even did a day count for you. I think you should at least wait until at least 05.03.07 before submitting the application, in order to improve the day count to "just" 515 days .... from the 532 days that would apply if you apply prior to 12.02.07. You cannot of course apply between say 12.02.07 and 05.03.07 because you were absent from the UK exactly 5 years earlier.

You have seen the guidance notes. Thus you will be aware of the sort of issue you need to deal with in order to hopefully persuade IND to exercise their discretion in your favour.

As mentioned earlier in this topic you might feel the need to seek professional advice concerning your Naturalisation application, in view of the discretion that is being sought.