British citzenship- conviction for uninsured driving

Hi

I will be finishing 12 months on ILR in February 2009 and would therefore otherwise become eligible to apply for the British citizenship. I have however got couple of questions

1. I have a conviction for driving without insurance (November 2006) and was wondering if that would affect my application for naturalization?

2. I gave life in the uk test as part of applying for ILR, will I need to sit the exam again to apply for the British citizenship?

Grateful if someone can help me out.

Regards

shrivast77 wrote:Hi

I will be finishing 12 months on ILR in February 2009 and would therefore otherwise become eligible to apply for the British citizenship. I have however got couple of questions

1. I have a conviction for driving without insurance (November 2006) and was wondering if that would affect my application for naturalization?

2. I gave life in the uk test as part of applying for ILR, will I need to sit the exam again to apply for the British citizenship?

Grateful if someone can help me out.

Regards

I am not a pro but according to the ukba, they will disregard minor offences (e.g speeding) but I am not sure whether your offence is considered as a minor one. What was the punishment you have received?

200 pounds plus 6 points on license. Not sure what view they will form of this.

yarons wrote:

shrivast77 wrote:Hi

I will be finishing 12 months on ILR in February 2009 and would therefore otherwise become eligible to apply for the British citizenship. I have however got couple of questions

1. I have a conviction for driving without insurance (November 2006) and was wondering if that would affect my application for naturalization?

2. I gave life in the uk test as part of applying for ILR, will I need to sit the exam again to apply for the British citizenship?

Grateful if someone can help me out.

Regards

I am not a pro but according to the ukba, they will disregard minor offences (e.g speeding) but I am not sure whether your offence is considered as a minor one. What was the punishment you have received?

According to UKBA guide (p.18 last two lines)

Drink-driving offences, driving while uninsured or disqualified are not minor offences either.

Someone on the forum should be able to advise when this offence becomes spent.

Life in The UK test doesn't have expiry date. You don't have to sit exam again.

UKBA wrote:Your criminal record

You must give details of all unspent criminal convictions. This includes road traffic offences but not fixed penalty notices (such as speeding or parking tickets) unless they were given in court. You must include all drink-driving offences. An explanation of unspent convictions is given below.

If you have an unspent conviction, your application for citizenship is unlikely to be successful. You should wait until the end of your rehabilitation period before applying.
...

I think your best bet is to apply in Nov 2011.

I have a conviction for driving without insurance (November 2006)

Please clarify. What happened in November 2006? When you committed the offence? Or when you were convicted in Court, and fined etc?

November 2006 was when I received the fine from the court. The offence took place in May 2006.

John wrote:

I have a conviction for driving without insurance (November 2006)

Please clarify. What happened in November 2006? When you committed the offence? Or when you were convicted in Court, and fined etc?

The conviction will become spent 5 years after the fine was imposed. You cannot apply for Naturalisation before the conviction is spent, and even that will be subject to whatever law is in force at the time.

John wrote:The conviction will become spent 5 years after the fine was imposed. You cannot apply for Naturalisation before the conviction is spent, and even that will be subject to whatever law is in force at the time.

true.

From the AN guide

Criminal record checks will be carried out in all cases. If you have a conviction which is
not yet “spentâ€

Hi,

I found this thread related to my situation and I would be very grateful if some one can reply to my questions.

I had 6 driving points but all got cleared last year. In both cases I paid fines to court notices.

As per UKBA any paid fines should be spent i.e 5yrs, so my questions is do they count the 5yr period from the date of offense or from the date when the fine was paid.

Like if I made the office on 05/1/05 but got a letter in June05 and paid the fine in July 05, will this become spent 5yrs from the date of offense which will be 05/01/10 or 5yrs when the fine was paid in July10.

Thanks in advace,
Ali.

was it a fixed penalty?....did the case go to court?...
The 5-year period counts from the date of the conviction and not from the date when the offence was commited.

sa49873 wrote:Hi,

I found this thread related to my situation and I would be very grateful if some one can reply to my questions.

I had 6 driving points but all got cleared last year. In both cases I paid fines to court notices.

As per UKBA any paid fines should be spent i.e 5yrs, so my questions is do they count the 5yr period from the date of offense or from the date when the fine was paid.

Like if I made the office on 05/1/05 but got a letter in June05 and paid the fine in July 05, will this become spent 5yrs from the date of offense which will be 05/01/10 or 5yrs when the fine was paid in July10.

Thanks in advace,
Ali.

Thanks for the reply.

Initially I was given £60 penalty notice but since I was on an international license therefore in both cases i received court fines.

For the first offense i decided not to go to the court and asked them take a decision, later I received a court fine of £243 for this and I paid it on 10/11/04.

For the second offense I went to the court on 19/07/05 and recieved and paid fine of £100 there.

regards,
Saulat

If you are planning to apply for citizenship then wait until July, just to be on the safe side....it will be the HO case worker criteria to overlook your convictions and you might end up losing the application fee. Drive very carefully so you dont have to wait 5 more years to apply.
Good luck!

sa49873 wrote:Thanks for the reply.

Initially I was given £60 penalty notice but since I was on an international license therefore in both cases i received court fines.

For the first offense i deou cided not to go to the court and asked them take a decision, later I received a court fine of £243 for this and I paid it on 10/11/04.

For the second offense I went to the court on 19/07/05 and recieved and paid fine of £100 there.

regards,
Saulat

I think you are right, its better to wait then rush and get turned down.

Thank you so much for your valuable reply.

regards,
Ali

sa49873 wrote:I think you are right, its better to wait then rush and get turned down.

Thank you so much for your valuable reply.

regards,
Ali

What were the offences you have committed? according to the guidelines, minor offences such as speeding and other regulatory offences are disregarded even if not spent.

What were the offences you have committed? according to the guidelines, minor offences such as speeding and other regulatory offences are disregarded even if not spent.

If fines are given in court (including speeding offence) and are unspent, then they should be declared and the application is unlikely to be successful. I think the key point is not if an offence is minor but whether a sentence is given in court or not.

Danbrix wrote:

What were the offences you have committed? according to the guidelines, minor offences such as speeding and other regulatory offences are disregarded even if not spent.

If fines are given in court (including speeding offence) and are unspent, then they should be declared and the application is unlikely to be successful. I think the key point is not if an offence is minor but whether a sentence is given in court or not.

Danbrix, I am unsure what made you come to this conclusion. There were several cases stated in this very forum of people with one minor offence with a sentence given in court who had no problems with their application.
I agree with you that sentences given in court should be declared (and fixed penalties not given in court should not) but ukba is being quite reasonable about minor traffice offences.

I refer you the quote from the AN form guideline I have posted before with the relevant part in bold:

Criminal record checks will be carried out in all cases. If you have a conviction which is
not yet “spentâ€

yaron,

thanks for your reply. the details of my offenses are below:

First Offense
**********
Offense made on: 18/08/04
Offense: Driving in bus lane and didn’t see the No Entry sign
Penalty: 3points and a court fine of £234. Points were endorsed from the date of offense i.e. 18/08/04
Court Notice: 27/09/04
Fine received 02/11/04:
Date Fine Paid: Didn’t go to court and paid over the phone by card on 10/11/04

Second Offense
**************
Offense made on: 05/01/05
Offense: Driving on an international license while I was in UK for more than 1yr. Court letter doesn’t say that I wasn’t insured.
Penalty: 3points and a court fine of £200 reduced to £100
Court Notice: 24/06/05
Date of Hearing: 19/07/05
Date Fine Paid: Went to court and paid the fine there on 19/07/05


Now all points are removed from my license and it’s clean but I'm not sure when the fines will become spent.

The fine is spent 5 years after the sentence. So for the 1st one you can ignore. the 2nd one is more tricky though. It will be spent in july so you might want to wait till then, if u do apply now u will have to mention it

sa49873 wrote:yaron,

thanks for your reply. the details of my offenses are below:

First Offense
**********
Offense made on: 18/08/04
Offense: Driving in bus lane and didn’t see the No Entry sign
Penalty: 3points and a court fine of £234. Points were endorsed from the date of offense i.e. 18/08/04
Court Notice: 27/09/04
Fine received 02/11/04:
Date Fine Paid: Didn’t go to court and paid over the phone by card on 10/11/04

Second Offense
**************
Offense made on: 05/01/05
Offense: Driving on an international license while I was in UK for more than 1yr. Court letter doesn’t say that I wasn’t insured.
Penalty: 3points and a court fine of £200 reduced to £100
Court Notice: 24/06/05
Date of Hearing: 19/07/05
Date Fine Paid: Went to court and paid the fine there on 19/07/05


Now all points are removed from my license and it’s clean but I'm not sure when the fines will become spent.

first one should be fine as it is spent already. the second one really depends on how ukba treats this offence. I am not sure whether this will be treated as a minor offence as you effectively drove without a valid license according to the UK laws. I would suggest getting advice from a solicitor or an immigration agency. if you apply now, you will need to declare it. if refused, you can always reapply in July assuming you are willing to take the risk of losing the application fee.

can anybody tell me if police caution has any effect on ILR or Citizenship? it was out of domesticviolence and both me and my wife got police caution at a police station(not verbal) thanks

dr_raihan29 wrote:can anybody tell me if police caution has any effect on ILR or Citizenship? it was out of domesticviolence and both me and my wife got police caution at a police station(not verbal) thanks

From http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitec ... iew=Binary :

3.4 Cautions
3.4.1 When determining whether an applicant meets the "good character" requirement, caseworkers should not normally take into account cautions unless they fall into one of the following categories:
a.
If the caution or cautions are of a sexual nature that require the individual to be included on the Sex Offenders Register. Any application received whilst the individual is subject to reporting requirements on the Sex Offenders Register should be refused (see section 4 for further guidance).
b.
If the individual has received multiple cautions that show a pattern of offending, which causes harm to other individuals or to the community in general, and which, on the balance of probabilities, indicates the applicant is not of good character.

Hey everyone,

I have also been caught driving without insurance couple years back so i guess i need to wait for few years before i can apply but here is the thing.

On my driving license my name is spelt very differently ( surname is the same) to what it is in the passport, DVLA probably just made a mistake but about 4 letters dont match. Do you think if i apply and ignore to mention this offense will they be able to find out??

when police stopped me i gave them my name as in passport and DOB and they couldnt find me in their database but then i gave them my name on the driving license plus driving license number and they were able to find me so im wondering whether i can pull this off.

another question would be if i hide this fact and they will find out what is the worst case scenario for me?

sorry i know it sounds abit dodgy but i dont particularly want to wait for another 3 years.

thanks.

shrivast77 wrote:Hi

I will be finishing 12 months on ILR in February 2009 and would therefore otherwise become eligible to apply for the British citizenship. I have however got couple of questions

1. I have a conviction for driving without insurance (November 2006) and was wondering if that would affect my application for naturalization?

2. I gave life in the uk test as part of applying for ILR, will I need to sit the exam again to apply for the British citizenship?

Grateful if someone can help me out.

Regards

Without going into too much details and all the ins and outs of your conviction, I would just give you my personal advice. Your conviction will be spent in Novemeber 2011, so the best way would be to apply in November 2011. I don't see much point in rushing and applying now, do all the explaining and still risk £ 735 if you get refused. If you apply in November 2011 then you will be sure that your application wont be refused due to your conviction. You did KoL when you applied for ILR, so when you apply for naturalisation, you just tick the relevant box, and nothing else needs to be done. Good luck.