My spouse has recently been granted ILR, having completed the five-year partner route to settlement. She’s now been here five years and was in the UK exactly 3 years ago, so is eligible to apply for naturalisation.
When my spouse first obtained leave to remain in the UK, she met the English requirement through a NARIC assessment of her Malaysian degree qualification. After her application was granted we unfortunately mislaid the original letter from NARIC, but we were able to obtain a certificate from them which I have attached to this post (with the personal information removed). We used this as evidence that my wife met the English language proficiency requirements for both her FLR and ILR applications, and it was accepted on both occasions, although for the FLR application it was questioned by the immigration officer.
In preparation to make the application for naturalisation we have just read through the Guide AN - Naturalisation Booklet. On page 18 it states that applicants from Non-majority English-speaking countries require their degree certificate, an Academic Qualification Level Statement (AQUAL) from UK NARIC confirming the qualification is equivalent to a UK qualification, and an English language Proficiency Statement (ELPS) from UK NARIC, which will confirm that the degree was taught in English.
The assessment we originally received from NARIC meets the ELPS criterion but does not meet the one for AQUAL, as there is clearly no mention of an Academic Qualification Level Statement on this certificate. I contacted NARIC yesterday and they said that there is now a specific assessment they do to meet the requirements for visa applicants, which wasn’t available when we first applied back in 2014. The cost for this is £150, and it takes around 10 working days.
Preferably we do not want to go through this process again, and incur these additional costs on top of the hefty application fee for naturalisation, but if we don’t then we might risk having her application rejected. I also contacted the Home Office and they said they were not able to comment on whether her existing NARIC certificate will meet the criteria for naturalisation. So our dilemma is whether to go back to NARIC and apply for the combined AQUAL/ELPS statement, or risk applying using our existing certificate, which has already been accepted twice.
Any helpful advice or general thoughts regarding this would be very much appreciated – many thanks in advance.
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