Refusal of British Citizenship

[Good]

Hi,

We applied for BC in June through NCS. My partner's application has been refused as he has unspent conviction on his licence for using hand held mobile while drving. We applied as a family. My son's and my application have been successful. When we applied for ILR last year, our solicitor did not say anything about waiting for 5 years for BC. So we went a head and applied through NCS. Now while reading the posts, I realised that NCS are not allowed to forward any applications with unspent convictions. But our NCS did not say anything and did not advise us on this. Had they said something, we would have saved £500. Can we raise this with NCS? If they were not allowed to forward my partner's application, then why they did so and made us lose money? What should I do next? We do not have right of appeal but can ask UKBA to re-consider.

Any advise will be highly appreciated.

[trs2011]

Hi,

We applied for BC in June through NCS. My partner's application has been refused as he has unspent conviction on his licence for using hand held mobile while drving. We applied as a family. My son's and my application have been successful. When we applied for ILR last year, our solicitor did not say anything about waiting for 5 years for BC. So we went a head and applied through NCS. Now while reading the posts, I realised that NCS are not allowed to forward any applications with unspent convictions. But our NCS did not say anything and did not advise us on this. Had they said something, we would have saved £500. Can we raise this with NCS? If they were not allowed to forward my partner's application, then why they did so and made us lose money? What should I do next? We do not have right of appeal but can ask UKBA to re-consider.

Any advise will be highly appreciated.

Well , application for BC , it is your own responsibility to check and know if you have any convictions . Its not the NCS duty to look this for you and also , they are not legal representatives so you cannot raise this against them . Its possible you were attended to by an inexperienced person but as i have said , their duty is to check if you have the necessary documents .
In another case , someone on the forum visited the NCS and they refused to sent his documents because of a conviction , but the owner ignored NCS and still sent the BC application and he was approved , so you can see if he had listened to NCS , he would have waited 5 years but he applied anyway , so its one's choice and responsibility not NCS .
As of what to do next , well from what you have said , it is better to wait until the next time he is eligible because you can't do anything , even if you raise issues that the NCS failed to tell you this , it doesn't change anything i m afraid .

[innocentdevil]

how were the points given. i.e: through court or FPN. i suspect its to do with the court and that it wasn't an FPN

[Jambo]

Was the conviction declared on the form? It seems the HO doesn't like to "discover" an applicant had conviction which was not declared on the form. They are more forgivable if you declare it.

[Gyfrinachgar]

Was the conviction declared on the form? It seems the HO doesn't like to "discover" an applicant had conviction which was not declared on the form. They are more forgivable if you declare it.

Exactly. While caseworkers have a lot of discretion to disregard certain offences (for example: "Where the applicant is of good character in all other respects caseworkers should normally be prepared to overlook a single minor unspent conviction"), regulations also state that "caseworkers should count heavily against an applicant any attempt to conceal the truth". HO has a hard stance against driving offences considered reckless (most notably driving while uninsured and using a mobile). Anything like that concealed and not declared on the form is a show-stopper and the applicant may be banned for 10 years from applying again.

NCS is not to blame, anyway, they simply check that the form itself is formally in order. If it was not on the form, there was nothing they could have done. HO will simply consult the according databases, but I doubt that the NCS has access to such data - let alone within the duration of an appointment. If on the other hand the offence was declared on the form, I would have expected the NCS to point out the possibility of a rejection, but that is as far as it goes. The risk of a rejection is the applicant's alone.

[bluebird2011]

Good

Please clarify if your husband was convicted in court or by the police officer.
Your husband's application can only be refused if he was convicted in court. Otherwise it will only be a FPN. A lot of people with similar offence (Not in court) have had successful applications.

Please clarify.

Regards

[Good]

Was the conviction declared on the form? It seems the HO doesn't like to "discover" an applicant had conviction which was not declared on the form. They are more forgivable if you declare it.

Yes, it was clearly declared on the form and a copy of the driving licence was attached to the documents. I think it was just our bad luck that NCS did not advise us of any possibilty of rejection. I just wondered whether they had any responsibilty of advising us on this or not which now I believe they did not.

I met somebody today who got his BC in 2008. He had a conviction on his licence for driving @ 60mph on 30mph road, where he was also fined £500 in the court. NCS advised him of a high possibility of refusal. He decided to apply for his BC through a legal firm and had a successful outcome. He will forward me the details of the legal firm. Will see if they can help. If they can ask HO to re-consider my partner's application by paying £80 fee, then I will go ahead otherwise we will wait until his conviction is spent.

[hoseaoshea]

Was the conviction declared on the form? It seems the HO doesn't like to "discover" an applicant had conviction which was not declared on the form. They are more forgivable if you declare it.

Yes, it was clearly declared on the form and a copy of the driving licence was attached to the documents. I think it was just our bad luck that NCS did not advise us of any possibilty of rejection. I just wondered whether they had any responsibilty of advising us on this or not which now I believe they did not.

I met somebody today who got his BC in 2008. He had a conviction on his licence for driving @ 60mph on 30mph road, where he was also fined £500 in the court. NCS advised him of a high possibility of refusal. He decided to apply for his BC through a legal firm and had a successful outcome. He will forward me the details of the legal firm. Will see if they can help. If they can ask HO to re-consider my partner's application by paying £80 fee, then I will go ahead otherwise we will wait until his conviction is spent.

Hi,

Did you manage to lodge your reconsideration? Can you kindly PM me the details of the law firm as I could make use of their services?

[skymoon]

Hi,

We applied for BC in June through NCS. My partner's application has been refused as he has unspent conviction on his licence for using hand held mobile while drving. We applied as a family. My son's and my application have been successful. When we applied for ILR last year, our solicitor did not say anything about waiting for 5 years for BC. So we went a head and applied through NCS. Now while reading the posts, I realised that NCS are not allowed to forward any applications with unspent convictions. But our NCS did not say anything and did not advise us on this. Had they said something, we would have saved £500. Can we raise this with NCS? If they were not allowed to forward my partner's application, then why they did so and made us lose money? What should I do next? We do not have right of appeal but can ask UKBA to re-consider.

Any advise will be highly appreciated.

If conviction was from court then you have to wait for 5 years to spent before you apply for naturalization.

[Good]

Was the conviction declared on the form? It seems the HO doesn't like to "discover" an applicant had conviction which was not declared on the form. They are more forgivable if you declare it.

Hi,

Did you manage to lodge your reconsideration? Can you kindly PM me the details of the law firm as I could make use of their services?

Hi, No I didn't. I have been advised to wait until the conviction is spent. The reason being that using mobile while driving has been used as an example in the guidelines so the HO could not use their discretion.

There is only 1 more year to go so we will wait. If you still need the lawyers details, I can send them in a private message to you.

[hoseaoshea]

Was the conviction declared on the form? It seems the HO doesn't like to "discover" an applicant had conviction which was not declared on the form. They are more forgivable if you declare it.

Hi,

Did you manage to lodge your reconsideration? Can you kindly PM me the details of the law firm as I could make use of their services?

Hi, No I didn't. I have been advised to wait until the conviction is spent. The reason being that using mobile while driving has been used as an example in the guidelines so the HO could not use their discretion.

There is only 1 more year to go so we will wait. If you still need the lawyers details, I can send them in a private message to you.

Hi,

I would love that. Kindly send the details as a private message to me