Naturalisation Denied - Appeal process. Please advise

[nkomp18]

Hello everyone!

I am not sure what I requested is the same as an appeal but I didn't know where else to discuss my case.

I was denied naturalisation because I missed 5 year rule but 2 days. According to the lawyers I consulted I deserve a redeclaration and a full refund too if the redeclaration isn't honoured (Annex B, Paragraph 3.2 and 3.7 state this clearly).

I wrote to request that, sending a copy of the law that states I'm eligible for it including proof of my eligibility and I've been waiting for over a month for a response.

I sent the letter to the case worker who handled my case directly.

Any idea how long they take and anyone here with a similar case? I hope they don't ignore my letter or take years to respond to it. What can I do to check the process of my demand, at least to know that they'll come back to me.

Any advise or suggestion is very much appreciated,
Thank you!

[douces]

why they refuse you we need more information about ur case

[nkomp18]

I missed 5 year rule but 2 days.

I applied as an EU citizen having lived in the country over 5 years while exercising my treaty rights (working, studying etc).

Even though I've been in the UK for almost 8 years, I sent my application on the 11th of April 2008 and I was on holiday that day 5 years before so I came back on the 13th of April 2003. According to the law, one has to be in the country physically on the day of the qualifying period which is 5 years exactly on the day that they receive the application. It also means my application would have been accepted if they received my application 2 days later.

It's a really silly rule especially for EU citizens and I shouldn't have even reported that I was on holiday since there's no way of verifying, but I did out of the goodness of my heart and since I knew the dates.

The law says if you miss the window by 2 months (in my case 2 days) you get a redeclaration under the discretion of the case worker and some other rules regarding absences. However, if that is not honoured by whatever reason and the missing window is less than 1 month, you deserve a full refund and the matter should be raised by the financial department. (Annex B, Paragraph 3.7)

So following legal advice, (everyone at the law office was shocked a redeclaration wasn't given automatically and the overall conclusion is that they're using every possible rule they find to rule out people because of the immense bulk of applications they receive lately), I sent all the necessary paperwork to claim my full refund if a redeclaration is not possible.

I still haven't heard from them. It was of course sent recorded mail and I have the signature of the person so there's no doubt they received it, but I don't know why they're taking so long.

Sorry about the length of this, I just need to know if the progress of my claim can be tracked down or if I can find out when I'll hear from them. If I could have advise who went through the same would be gold too!

Thank you

[nkomp18]

Update on my case
Received full refund letter today!

[sakura]

It's a really silly rule especially for EU citizens and I shouldn't have even reported that I was on holiday since there's no way of verifying, but I did out of the goodness of my heart and since I knew the dates.

If it is for naturalisation, the rules apply to all applicants regardless of nationality - there's nothing silly about wanting to know how long the applicant has been in/out of the UK. Also, I am pretty certain that the application clearly asks for dates spent outside the UK, meaning it isn't up to the applicant to decide whether or not to provide the information.

Will you re-submit your application again?

[nkomp18]

It's obviously the law and it's not my place to argue with it, I suppose there's a reason why it's there.

What bugs me is that they scan in extreme detail to find every possible aspect the of the law to reject the application and despite being so scholastic they still oversee the part of the law that is on your side. For instance, I had to point them out that I get a full refund and they responded with an apology letter and quoted it as an "oversight", even though they are fairly omniscient about all other aspects of the law that they used against my case.

They should have sent the full refund along with the first letter of rejection and not hope that the matter won't be raised since the criteria for refund eligibility are very clear!

I will of course apply again. I will make sure I wasn't on holiday 5 years ago this time around and all should be good.

[paulp]

Sometimes, it's well worth using NCS. They will check details like that.