CR001 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 24, 2018 5:24 pm
UK_Tier1 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 24, 2018 4:50 pm
acquamarina wrote: ↑Fri Aug 24, 2018 3:52 pm
christine761 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:31 am
I recently submitted my application for Naturalisation online. Unfortunately I have just realised that my list of absences from the UK for the past 5 years includes a 3 night trip in 2013, which means I was not physically present in the UK 5 years before the date on which I submitted the application online. The date on which I received the email from the Home Office confirming receipt of my application, and the date of my appointment with the Nationality Document Return Service, would both be fine (as I was in the UK 5 years prior to these). However, I fear the date I submitted the application (which appears on the front of the printed application form) will be the date used.
Does the Home Office have any discretion around this point or will my application be automatically refused and I will lose the fee?
Thank you for any assistance.
Hi christine761,
I have submitted my application 2 days ago and I just found out I'm in the same situation, that unfortunately means I wasn't physically in the UK on 22nd/23rd August 2013. I lived and worked here for 6 years, it just happened I was on holiday those days! And I found no mention of this in the application process. I litterally just found out.
Just like you, if I knew I would have waited 3 more days to submit it (as I came back from holiday on 25th August 2013). What are the chances I can appeal for reconsideration and exercise of discretion?
Did you get approved by any chance?
I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best, I just don't want to pay another £1,330+....
Thank you anyone for your help.
If you were on holiday on the 22nd/23rd August 2013 but you were validly in the UK under any of the Visas category that counts towards your residency, then I do not see what the issue is - Unless I have misunderstood your post.
You stated that you "lived and worked here for 6 years" in which case you must have had a visa category that entitled you to work and perhaps also qualified you to meet the permanent residency requirements.
The Residence requirement to be "physically present in the UK" for the 5 year period does not imply you have to be physically present in person for
everyday of the 5 years, hence the absence cool-off limits. What it means is that you had a valid immigration permit that qualifies you for permanent residency 6 years, (in your case) to the date you submitted your application
and you were already living in the UK on that date.
This is to prevent a situation where for an example, an applicant had a job permit issued to them and then only arrived in the UK 30days after but when they count their qualifying period, they use the date the permit was issued instead of when they arrived the UK. Hence you will see that the paper form under the "Residence Requirement" ask you to state the date you first arrived the UK.
This is from the Guide AN on Residency requirement:
"
2.1 Enter the day you first arrived with a view to staying in the UK on a long-term basis, and the airport or seaport through which you then entered. If this is less than 5 years before the date on which we receive the application, or less than 3 years before this date if you are married to or the civil partner of a British citizen, you might not meet the residence requirement (see page 6 of the Booklet AN) and your application may be unsuccessful."
You are misunderstanding the physcially present requirement. A person must be physcially present (ie not out of the UK for business, travel, holidays) on the exact same date 5/3 years previously as the date they apply for citizenship. This is mandatory. It has nothing to do with 'being away but have a valid permit to be in the UK'. Even though the OP has been in the UK for 6 years, for citizenship it is only the 5 years immediately preceding the date of application that counts and it is the start of that 5 year period that you must have been physically present in the UK.
Please do read the extract above that I posted from the guidance notes.
I read that, but the booklet had this to say also:
"
Most applications that fail do so because applicants have applied even though they cannot satisfy the residence requirement to be present in the UK at the beginning of the residential qualifying period."
I also checked this requirement before I submitted my application on-line myself and the interpretation I got from the learned solicitor(s) as per interpretation of "being present" and that was what I posted with the example.
(2)The requirements referred to in sub-paragraph (1)(a) of this paragraph are—
(a)that the applicant was in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the period of five years ending with the date of the application, and that the number of days on which he was absent from the United Kingdom in that period does not exceed 450; and
It may have been incorrect, but when I also read the BNA 1981 ACT, the advice give seems to make sense.
Also, I was never present in the UK on the day corresponding to the 5year qualifying period when I submitted my application on-line. In fact I was away for a week and half on work/business related - Perhaps some discretion was exercised in my case?
P:S I only posted advice I was given and I do not claim to be an expert on the subject as I also had same concern as the op I quoted.
.....
