British Citizenship – Good Character Requirement FAQs

It is difficult to envision many other situations in which people could successfully argue that an extended period of overstaying was not their “fault”. The only obvious example that comes to mind is where the applicant was a child at the time of the overstaying and the guidance does in fact state elsewhere that applicants should not be penalised for this. Another example might be where the applicant was in an abusive relationship and prevented from extending their leave by their partner.

Discretion relating to children

When assessing a child’s good character, it will normally be appropriate to disregard immigration breaches if it is accepted this was outside of their control. For example, where a parent applied for the child to come to the UK as their dependant but failed to apply for an extension of leave when the child’s temporary leave expired, the child should not be penalised.