Pascal wrote:I am a British citizen living in the UK and my wife has joyfully applied for her nationality. I am now seriously considering taking a job outside of the UK for a few years.
This raises a number of questions:
* Is there any downside with telling the Home Office that we are considering living abroad?
Not a problem. This is because she is married to a British citizen. (the guide makes this very clear).
* If we have to move before her application is approved (or the ceremony), will that have any impact on the application.
In theory, no. Moving outside the UK does not prevent a spouse being granted naturalisation and it's possible to have the ceremony at a British mission outside the UK.
HOWEVER, you need to be aware that should she move away from the UK there might be a difficulty if there was a problem with the application for some other reason (eg the requirement to have been physically in the UK exactly 3 years before application).
Safest option is for her to stay in the UK until she is sworn in as a citizen. That does not stop you making active plans to move. Nor do you have to be in the UK all this time.
* Is there any good way of encouraging the home office to gently accelerate consideration of a nationality application?
Not in a circumstance like this. But processing times are not usually very long, anyway:
http://www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/applying/nationality/
And in the UK, most people can get a ceremony quickly.
