Applying for citizenship, couple of questions

[indian_in_uk]

Hi All,

I came to UK in Aug'2002 on a work permit, later moved to HSMP and got my ILR in Sept'2007.

I got 3 points on my license, £120 fine in court becasue I was driving on international license/UK provisional license (LC20) in July 2006 i.e. more than five years ago.

I think the offence above should be spent now, so do I have to declare this offence on my BC application?

I was working for a client in Germany from Sep 2009 to Aug - 2010. I was commuting to Germany every monday and coming back to London on Friday. I was employed by a consultancy in London and was paid in UK. All taxes etc were paid in UK as well. Does this absense have any negative effect on my application in any way?

My wife would be applying for BC with me, she got ger ILR in 2007 with me and came to UK in 2005. Do we have to pay double fee for the application or is it going to be a joint applciation with one form and normal fee?

Many thanks for your help in advance, I really appreciate.

Indian_in_UK

[John]

I think the offence above should be spent now

If the date of conviction (not the date the offence was committed) was more than 5 years ago then the conviction is indeed spent, in which case there is no need to mention it on your form AN.

Does this absense have any negative effect on my application in any way?

So in the last 5 years, how many days have you been outside the UK? An accurate count please. Do appreciate that you only need to count the number of days you were totally outside the UK. So for example, if you leave the UK on a Monday, and return on the following Friday, you only need to count the intervening Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

My wife would be applying for BC with me, she got ger ILR in 2007 with me and came to UK in 2005. Do we have to pay double fee for the application or is it going to be a joint applciation with one form and normal fee?

Have you looked at a form AN? If you have you will appreciate that one form is required per applicant.

However if a husband and wife apply at the same time, it is cheaper. Download this UKBA file (click), where you will see that one person applying would pay currently £836, but a couple applying at the same time would pay a joint fee of £1294.

A slight word of warning if the two of you apply at the same time ... do ensure that you both pass all the tests, for example, both of your would need to pass the "applicant was physically in the UK exactly 5 years before UKBA will receive the Naturalisation application" test.

Also, you both got ILR in 2007. I can't remember when the Life in the UK Citizenship test was introduced. Did both of you need to pass that test in order to get your ILRs? If not then you both need to pass the test prior to applying for Naturalisation.

[indian_in_uk]

Many thanks for your reply John, I appreciate your help.

Date of conviction was more than five years ago as well, July'2006 to be precise. So I guess I do not have to declare on the form, right?

Number of days outside in last 5 years would be around 220 including the project in Germany. is that ok?

Yes, both me and my wife got our ILR after we passed the 'Life in the UK test' and were present in UK exactly five years ago for the application. so this should not be a problem. Do we need to provide the test certificates with the form as well?

Many Thanks,
Indian_In_UK

[John]

Number of days outside in last 5 years would be around 220 including the project in Germany. is that ok?

220 is less than 450, so no problem there. In the last year? Less than 90 days outside the UK?

Do we need to provide the test certificates with the form as well?

No, as you will see on the form AN, it is just a question of ticking the appropriate box, to indicate that the pass certificate was supplied when applying for the ILR.

..... were present in UK exactly five years ago for the application

Do check and re-check just before the two of you are going to apply. UKBA have no discretion about this particular rule, it is either passed or failed, and if failed the application will fail!

[indian_in_uk]

Thanks for this John.

In the last year it is about 20 days outside of Uk so should not be a problem.

Yup, I checked in our passports, we were in Uk in Nov 2006 so 5 year rule should be fine as well.

Many thanks