ILR to British Citizenship

Hello,

I got my ILR after having GTV for three years. Now I'm wondering if I will be eligible to apply for British Citizenship after having ILR for 12 months, while I have spent continuous 4 years in the UK (3 years with GTV, and 1 year with ILR)? or I need to have ILR for 24 months to meet that 5-year rule for British Citizenship?

Normally people gets ILR after 5 years, but for me it was 3 years - and HO has not mentioned this in their rules in applying for British Citizenship.

With thanks,

For citizenship, you must have 5 years residence and this must include at least 12 months on ILR, regardless of your immigration route.

British Citizenship is NOT an immigration application and has completely different rules and requirements to visas and ILR.

The only time the rules are different is if you are married to a British citizen.

You need to meet both requirements, five years residence AND one year of ILR. By definition, to meet both, you can only apply when the latter/second of the conditions are met.

Berkay wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 03, 2022 1:22 pm

HO has not mentioned this in their rules in applying for British Citizenship.

It is very definitely mentioned in both the guidance and in the text of the law.

Natirsalisation as a British citizen by discretion caseworker guidance wrote:(Page 13)
The residence requirements which someone applying under section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981 must meet are that the applicant was:

• in the UK at the beginning of the period of 5 years ending with the date of the application

• not absent from the UK for more than:
o 450 days in that 5-year period
o 90 days in the period of 12 months ending with the date of application

• not, on the date of application, subject under the immigration laws to any restriction on the period of stay in the UK

• not, at any other time in the 12-month period ending with date of 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 5 years ending with the date of application, in the UK in breach of the 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

The text of the law is linked to at the start of the paragraph in the document linked to above. Note that all the above residential (and other) requirements need to be met by *all* applicants for naturalisation, regardless of their immigration pathway.

Indeed, till this June, the first requirement listed above, that you were physically in the UK at the start of the five year period, was mandatory. So, if you were out of the UK, say for a vacation or for a family emergency, five years ago, you could not apply. The law was changed to make that a requirement for which discretion can be applied, rather than being mandatory. But the requirement still applies.

So, the requirements you will need to meet are
(a) holding ILR for at least one year before the date of application (ILR can be held for as long as required to meet the other requirements),
(b) being physically present in the UK at the start of the five year period before the date of application,
(c) the relevant absences for the five AND one year periods immediately preceding the date of application.
Other requirements (LITUK and English proficiency) also apply, but I presume that you met those when applying for ILR.