Thank you for providing a more detailed timeline.
From the caseworker guidance
https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... accessible
Residence requirements: 6(2)
The residence requirements which someone applying under section 6(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981 must meet are that the applicant was:
in the UK at the beginning of the period of 3 years ending with the date of application
not absent from the UK for more than:
270 days in that 3-year period
90 days in the period of 12 months ending with the date of application
not, on the date of the application subject under the immigration laws to any restriction on their period of stay in the UK
not, at any time in the period of 3 years ending with the date of application in breach of immigration laws - however, a person can be treated as meeting this requirement without further enquiries if they hold indefinite leave to enter or remain in the UK
There is discretion to waive the residence for applications under section 6(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981 with the exception of the requirement that the applicant must be free from time restrictions under immigration law at the time of their application.
Considering the residence requirements
In assessing whether an individual meets the residence requirements you must consider the following aspects:
presence in the UK at the start of the qualifying period
absences:
absences during the qualifying period
absences in the final year
technical absences
spouses or civil partners of British citizens in Crown or designated services
immigration law:
free from condition on period of time in UK
breaches of immigration law in the qualifying period
Presence in the UK at the start of the qualifying period
There are certain people who do not need to have been in the UK at the start of the 5-year qualifying period. These are:
applicants who are applying only on the grounds of Crown service
spouses or civil partners of British citizens in Crown or designated service overseas
applicants who are technically absent from the UK
All other applicants must have been physically present in the UK on the first day of the qualifying period. There is discretion to waive this requirement (see section on discretion).
In the UK at the start of the qualifying period
In most cases, we expect applicants to have been in the UK on day 1 of the qualifying period as this means they have completed the full 5 (or 3) years in the UK as required. However, there is discretion to waive this requirement in special circumstances.
To identify the start of the qualifying period you use the day after the application date minus the length of the qualifying period. For example in an application under section
6(1) made on 1 September 2022, the applicant must have been legally in the UK on 2 September 2017.
Discretion over an applicant’s presence in the UK at the start of the qualifying period in exceptional cases
There may be special reasons, such as those relating to the applicant’s health, that prevented them from being in the UK at the start of the qualifying period. The Nationality and Borders Act 2022 introduced the power to treat the applicant as having fulfilled this requirement in the special circumstances of a particular case even though they were not in the UK at the beginning of the residential period.
Discretion to treat the requirement to have been in the UK on the first day of the residential qualifying period as fulfilled should normally be exercised if one or more of the following is met:
the applicant was prevented from being in the UK because they had been removed from the UK, and the decision to remove them was later overturned
the applicant was incorrectly prevented from resuming permanent residence in the UK following an absence
the applicant is normally resident in the UK but there were exceptional reasons why they could not return from abroad at that time, such as illness, or travel restrictions due to a pandemic
the applicant is a current or former member of the armed forces (see the section on armed forces applicants)
If you propose to exercise discretion, you should see appropriate evidence demonstrating why the applicant was unable to be present at the start of the qualifying period. For example, if this is based on health grounds, you should see relevant medical evidence.
Cases where the requirement can be met by the date of consideration
Applicants are expected to meet this requirement, but there may be cases where the person has inadvertently applied on a date when they did not. The application form will ask applicants to agree that the Home Office use a different date as the date of application, if this would work to their advantage.
If there has been a fee change between the original application date and the date that they can now meet the requirement (to have been in the UK at the start of the qualifying period), they must pay the fee in force at the time of the new application date.
Changing the application date in this way may be appropriate for applicants who did not meet the requirement to have been in the UK at the start of the qualifying period but meet the requirement by the time you consider their application. When you consider the application, you must assess whether the person would meet this
requirement (and the other residence requirements) on either the date you are considering the application, or a date between their original application and consideration. If a person does not meet the requirements on the date of consideration, but will do so within the next two months, it may be appropriate to put the application on hold. If the person will not meet the requirement for some time, you must consider whether there are exceptional grounds to exercise discretion (see section on discretion).
Absences during the qualifying period
Where an applicant has spent more than the 450 days for section 6(1) applications, or 270 days for section 6(2) applications, outside of the UK during the qualifying period you must consider exercising discretion if they meet the other requirements.
Where the applicant exceeds the permitted absence by 30 days or less you must exercise discretion unless there are other grounds on which the application falls to be refused.
Where the applicant has absences of between 480 and 900 days for applications under section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981, or 300 and 540 days for applications under section 6(2) and otherwise meets the requirements you must only consider exercising discretion where the applicant has established their home, employment, family and finances in the UK, and one or more of the following applies:
at least 2 years residence (for applications under section 6(1)), or 1 year (for applications under section 6(2)), without substantial absences immediately prior to the beginning of the qualifying period - if the period of absence is greater than 730 days (for section 6(1)) or 450 days (for section 6(2)) the period of residence must be at least 3 or 2 years respectively
the excess absences are the result of:
postings abroad in Crown service under the UK government or in service designated under section 2(3) of the British Nationality act 1981.
accompanying a British citizen spouse or civil partner on an appointment overseas
the excess absences were an unavoidable consequence of the nature of the applicant’s career, such as a merchant seaman or employment with a multinational company based in the UK with frequent travel abroad
exceptionally compelling reasons of an occupational or compassionate nature to justify naturalisation now, such as a firm job offer where British citizenship is a statutory or mandatory requirement
the applicant was prevented from being in the UK because they had been removed from the UK, and the decision to remove them was later overturned
the applicant was incorrectly prevented from resuming permanent residence in the UK following an absence
the excess absences were because the applicant was unable to return to the UK because of global pandemic
See the part in bold. Prior to the qualifying period you should not have had substantial absences.
Your qualifying period starts on the 5 Feb 2022 if you applied today, so we need to look at the year preceding that - Feb 2021 to Feb 2022. In this time frame you were absent, if my calculations are correct, for 136 days. It is difficult to know what is "substantial" but to be on the safe side I would suggest you need to keep absences in that year prior to the qualifying period below 90 days, which means waiting until the 23-24 March to apply. In this case you still need to provide all documents I said above about your links to the UK.
If you provide the timeline for the time period 2018-2019-2020 I can try to run some other calculations to see if applying under Section 6(1) would allow you to apply a bit earlier.
All advice comes from personal research and experience and should not be regarded as professional opinion.
