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Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 8:02 pm
by Adam1976
Hi ,,
I was granted permanent resident card 10/ 2015,
I am married to European and we both have lived in the UK for 10 years.
We got married in 11/2009 , in 5/ 2015 I applied for permanext residency which I got it after 6 months.
Some people say I have to wait 1 year from 10/2015 and then I can apply for naturalisation.
Others say that I can apply now because from 11/2009 to 11/2015 is 6 years which means I am automatically eligible for the naturalisation.
Any advice please.
Re: Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 9:22 pm
by liquidweb15
Hi Adam, as far as I understand, if your wife is BC then you may apply as her dependent immediately. Otherwise you may need to wait till 10/2016. I hope someone else on the forum will have better awareness on this.
Re: Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:27 am
by presido007
Adam1976 wrote:Hi ,,
I was granted permanent resident card 10/ 2015,
I am married to European and we both have lived in the UK for 10 years.
We got married in 11/2009 , in 5/ 2015 I applied for permanext residency which I got it after 6 months.
Some people say I have to wait 1 year from 10/2015 and then I can apply for naturalisation.
Others say that I can apply now because from 11/2009 to 11/2015 is 6 years which means I am automatically eligible for the naturalisation.
The law has changed in December 2015, you will now have to wait one year after you acquired permanent residence card to be able to apply for naturalisation. So you will now have to wait till 10/2016 to apply for your naturalisation .
Re: Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 10:39 am
by Adam1976
Thanks a lot guys for your help.
Re: Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 10:44 am
by LilyLalilu
"(...) unless you are married to or the civil partner of a British citizen, you should normally have held permanent resident status for 12 months before applying for naturalisation. This means that you may need to wait until you have been in the United Kingdom for 6 years before you can apply. When you apply for a permanent residence document the evidence that you supply for your EEA(PR) application must be for a 5 year period that ended at least a year before you want to apply for citizenship.
For example: If you apply for Permanent Residence on 1st December 2015 and want to apply for Citizenship once that application is decided, you should send evidence that shows you were exercising Treaty rights as a qualified person or family member from 1 December 2009 to 1 December 2014. "
That's from booklet AN and indicates that one can apply once they have held Permanent Residence status for one year. The date from which one needs to wait 12 months therefore seems to be the date where one automatically acquired PR, not the date one received the document confirming PR.
Re: Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 10:50 am
by Casa
LilyLalilu wrote:"(...) unless you are married to or the civil partner of a British citizen, you should normally have held permanent resident status for 12 months before applying for naturalisation. This means that you may need to wait until you have been in the United Kingdom for 6 years before you can apply. When you apply for a permanent residence document the evidence that you supply for your EEA(PR) application must be for a 5 year period that ended at least a year before you want to apply for citizenship.
For example: If you apply for Permanent Residence on 1st December 2015 and want to apply for Citizenship once that application is decided, you should send evidence that shows you were exercising Treaty rights as a qualified person or family member from 1 December 2009 to 1 December 2014. "
That's from booklet AN and indicates that one can apply once they have held Permanent Residence status for one year. The date from which one needs to wait 12 months therefore seems to be the date where one automatically acquired PR, not the date one received the document confirming PR.
Unfortunately, this is a contentious point at present as the AN booklet hasn't been updated with the recent changes regarding PR. The NCS appears to be currently refusing to accept BC applications without a PR card/certificate dated one year previous, disregarding the date when PR was automatically obtained.
Re: Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:08 am
by LilyLalilu
Okay, definitely better to wait a year from the issue date of the card then, not worth risking >£1000!
Re: Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:14 am
by Casa
We'll know more once the first approvals/refusals start to come through following the November change to the PR requirement.
Re: Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:43 am
by ohara
The latest AN Booklet says:
"(...) unless you are married to or the civil partner of a British citizen, you should normally have held permanent resident status for 12 months before applying for naturalisation. This means that you may need to wait until you have been in the United Kingdom for 6 years before you can apply. When you apply for a permanent residence document the evidence that you supply for your EEA(PR) application must be for a 5 year period that ended at least a year before you want to apply for citizenship.
For example: If you apply for Permanent Residence on 1st December 2015 and want to apply for Citizenship once that application is decided, you should send evidence that shows you were exercising Treaty rights as a qualified person or family member from 1 December 2009 to 1 December 2014. "
So I don't think there is any need to wait 12 months from the date of receiving PR card, assuming you have actually held PR for 12 months or more.
Re: Applying for naturalisation
Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 3:44 pm
by secret.simon
I agree with
Casa that a definitive answer would emerge only after the first refusals from the November 2015 EEA applicants start coming in.
Here is my tuppen'orth;
Page 10 of the
Booklet AN dated November 2015 states
You should apply for a permanent residence card to prove that you hold that status before applying for citizenship.
...
When you apply for a permanent residence document the evidence that you supply for your EEA(PR) application must be for a 5 year period that ended at least a year before you want to apply for citizenship.
I interpret that last line to mean that the Home Office naturalisation team can verify internally, using the details of the PR Card, on which date did the applicant acquire PR, which need not be the date of the PR Card.
Based on that interpretation, there is no need to wait for a year from the date of the PR card, provided the proof of acquisition of PR for that card is dated atleast a year ago.