Naturalization query - applicant overseas.

Hi,

We have just found this forum while searching on the net for answers to our UK naturalisation predicament. I am a UK citizen and UK passport holder, my wife of 9 years is a polish passport holder (originally in UK on ILR but now an EEC national). Our 2.5 y-o son is a UK passport holder too. We have lived together as a family in England since 1998 and maintain bank accounts etc over there. However, we are currently in Australia where I am working on contract on a temporary 457 visa. My wife is keen to obtain aUK passport and we have investigated the possiblity of applying via the BHC in Canberra. Although my wife was present in the UK at the start of the 3-year period, it is not clear what our residence status at the HO would be at the moment. Also, we have been here for 197 day out of ther last 360 - would my wife need to return home for 107 days to ensure she meets the 90-day criteria?

Any opinons would be gratefully received

Mark and Malgosia

I haven't done the maths, but I think your wife would need to come back to the UK for as many days as it would take to reduce her absence to below 90 days in the year leading up to the naturalisation application.

The IND website is usually very slow, but seems to have ground to a complete halt at the moment (for me, at least) so I haven't been able to access the staff instructions on absences exceeding those laid down in the Act - I know there's a degree of flexibility, but can't get the precise details. But - from memory - I think they're particularly tough on excessive absences in that final year.

Although there's no legal objection to your wife's coming back to the UK to build up the residence requirement, and then actually submitting the application in Canberra, there might be a practical problem. As you'll be aware, all naturalisation applicants need to pass a "Life in the UK" test, and because naturalisation applications outside UK are so rare, it might not be possible for her to take it in Canberra. She may have to take it in UK, regardless of where she is when she submits the naturalisation application.

Finally, just a small correction - I think it might be just a misunderstanding on your part, but I was slightly puzzled your reference to your wife's having been "originally in UK on ILR but now an EEC national"; I hope this is not literally true, as having ILR is preferable to simply exercising "treaty rights" as an EU/EEA national. Indefinite leave to remain is literally that, regardless of whether the individual is economically active, etc. "Treaty rights" are a step down from this, and in fact an EU national resident in UK can't apply for naturalisation until he/she has got ILR...

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply. Your opinions seem to confer with what we were thinking. I guess we will just have to wait until we get back from Australia and start building up the uk residence time again -my wife is kicking herself since it would have been very straightforward before we came out here (8+ years of continual residence etc). In answer to your final question, it was probably lax phrasing on my part - my wife still has her ILR.

Cheers

Mark and Malgosia