I don't think it is generally your choice to decide on the criteria under which you want your application assessed. Nowehere in the guidance notes do they indicate any choice on your part. Even the minimum residence criteria says "If you're married to a british citizen....." rather than "if your claim is based on marriage to a british citizen....".
The only difference seems to be that you need to send some more supporting documentation ( like marriage certificates and a copy of the partner's passport) if you are married to a British citizen. Whether or not you can choose to ignore this if your spouse is british but you are not claiming based on marriage is vague but I just wouldn't see any reason to overcomplicate matters. It is quite possible that an overzealous IND official would put aside your file seeing that your spouse is British but no marriage certificate was submitted. You could then go into an unnecessary cycle of requests for supporting documentation from IND. It really isn't worth taking the chance. Keep it as simple as possible wouldbe my advice for what it's worth.
As far as the form goes, you never get to specify a choice - you just need to fill in the details asked for. If you are married , then you MUST fill in the section about your spouse and part of the detail is their citizenship - British in your case. Even people whose spouses are not British have to fill in exactly the same section.
Ultimately, as you fulfill the minimum criteria on both counts there is no doubt your application will be granted. Assessing you based on your spouse's citizenship will be a shorter decision tree for the IND and will also mean they need to examine less data about your residence and absences from the UK and therefore the application is likely to be processed quicker especially if you have had frequent absences. If I were you, I would bite the bullet and send the marriage certificate along with the application and save myself the unnecessary hassle. The other way of avoiding this might be if your spouse is a dual national and you just specify their non-British nationality on the form.
So, on the application form should I cross out the section of marriage details (because the form says fill in ONLY those sections which apply to you and cross out the remaining section)
Just to clarify, details of the spouse HAVE to be specified in every case if you are married - whether or not your claim is based on marriage. So please do not interpret this section wrongly. As you are married, the section DOES apply to you. it has nothing to do with the basis on which you are claiming citizenship.
At the moment on job seekers allowance (Six months after the ILR). Will this affect my application that I am on the job seekers allowance, even though I am entitled to it?
No - claiming unemployment benefit has no effect on the strength of your application. The criteria used is "good character" so as long as you are not committing benefit fraud or similar, you shouldn't have a problem.
