MartaZgo wrote:Thanks. Seems like the answer is I am not able to apply until 01.05.2017 now. This is rubbish!
Assuming it's 01.05.2017 now my absence period as stated: The assessment of absences for nationality applications is different as they must not exceed 450 days during the qualifying period or 90 days in the final year of that period. My qualifying period will be 01.05.2011 - 01.05.2017 ? In which it's 450 days in total and 90 in the final year (01.05.2016 - 01.05.2017)? Confirmation will be much appreciated as this depends whether I go to Africa for 6 months for an NGO project!
Thanks Noajthan.
This must be very upsetting news & the last thing you wanted to hear today.
If you are from an A8 country and working before 2011 you would have been expected to register & comply with WRS.
If for some reason that did not happen then work in UK before 2011 won't be considered as exercising treaty rights.
So your clock will have started (as a worker) when WRS was abolished, (some time in 2011 - you will need to check on the details).
If you continue exercising treaty rights you will acquire PR automatically sometime in 2016 (assuming you count from 2011).
That gives you settled status whether or not you apply for a confirmation of PR card. (A PR card is optional).
Unless you do something drastic & marry a BC, you need to be free from
immigration time restrictions, as a prequisite to naturalisation;
this means maintaining your
settled status for
12 months (ie PR) - until mid-2017 based on your figures.
You are correct, naturalisation requirements then come into play, with the limit on absences before applying being 90 days in the final 12 months.
Note I understand the total of 450 days absences is applied over
5 years (not 6).
Whilst exercising treaty rights you can be absent from UK for up to 6 months in a year &
still maintain your residency in UK.
Note once you have acquired PR/settled status you can only lose it by an absence from UK of over
2 years.
With knowledge of all the rules (both EU rules & for UK naturalisation), and by a careful application of them, you may be able to make the best of the situation.
You could still go ahead with NGO plans & go abroad (for a
maximum of 6 months) and in doing so you could still acquire PR in mid-2016.
Once you have PR you don't have to exercise treaty rights per se as you will have settled status.
It just means carefully timing your citizenship application so the 6 months abroad doesn't fall into the immediate 12 months before you apply;
this will ensure you don't fail the naturalisation 90-day rule.
Note: there is a strange twist to this: a court ruling earlier this year determined the extension of WRS until 2011 was 'illegal'.
Apparently this ruling has not yet made its way into UK domestic law yet.
I do not know if this ruling gives you grounds for an appeal of your case.
There is a post in the forum on this very question.
You may wish to take legal advice on that question.
If WRS was illegal from 2009 & you can appeal based on that it could alter the outcome of your current situation.
