More than 270 days absence - 3 yr spouse route

[nemo999]

Hi All,

I am British citizen and my partner is looking to apply for British citizenship on the 3 yr spouse route.

Unfortunately, the absence outside UK in last 3 yr period are more than 270 days.
Absences are as follows, the total comes to 306 days.

during the second absence period I was seriously ill abroad and later contracted COVID abroad, (I have paperwork from the hospital to prove this).

Because of that my partner had to stay outside UK with me. My partner was remotely working during most of the absences

11-Dec-21 13-Feb-22 -> 63days
12-Mar-22 07-Aug-22 -> 147days
16-Dec-22 14-Jan-23 -> 28days
15-Jun-23 30-Jun-23 ->14 days
02-Dec-23 13-Jan-24 ->41 days
17-Feb-24 02-Mar-24 - >13 days

My question is , if we are looking to apply on the 15th May 2024 for British citizenship, on discretionary basis, discretion would be requested in two areas:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... accessible

a) Not being present in the country exactly 3 yrs ago.

b) Crossing the 270 days absence in 3 yr period

what are the chances of getting rejected? or is it better to wait further?

Please suggest.

[secret.simon]

Just to quickly clarify, is your partner either married to you or in a civil partnership with you? The three year route is only available to spouses and civil partners, not to those in long-term relationships.

My question is , if we are looking to apply on the 15th May 2024 for British citizenship, on discretionary basis, discretion would be requested in two areas:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... accessible

a) Not being present in the country exactly 3 yrs ago.

b) Crossing the 270 days absence in 3 yr period

what are the chances of getting rejected? or is it better to wait further?

My understanding of the text of the guidance is that discretion can be exercised for not meeting *one* requirement, but unlikely to be exercised for two. And the physical presence and absences requirement are two separate requirements.

However, have you looked at whether your partner meets the five year requirements for both physical presence and absences? If they do, they could apply, stating that they wish the application to be considered under Section 6(1) (the five year non-partner route), rather than Section 6(2) (the three year partner route).

[nemo999]

Thanks for the quick response, @secret.simon, my apologies I should have mentioned my partner is married.

Also, thanks for highlighting that we can consider applying under 6(1) route, we were not aware of this.
We will start looking into this now.

[nemo999]

Also,

My wife is director of company which she setup for property management business which is registered on companies house and she is sole director (apart from her regulars full time employment).

We jointly own a property in Spain and we had to go there to find a suitable partner company who can manage our property on Airbnb.

During the trip between 02-Dec-23 and 13-Jan-24 (41 days absence ) we found a company in Spain who can manage our property and we signed a contract with them.

Can this absence be treated as business absence, so that it can be disregarded from personal absence allowance?

When she travelled to Spain on non EU passport, do we need to travel to Spain on a business visa to prove the absence was business related or a normal visit visa (for Spain) is fine too?

[CR001]

No. For citizenship, all absences are treated the same, as absence.