edga wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2019 8:47 pm
What is this based on?
It is based on the rules under the British Nationality Act 1981.
edga wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2019 8:47 pm
The following is printed on the letter I got with my PR:
"If you wish to apply for British Citizenship, and you are not the spouse or civil partner of a British citizen, you must have held permanent residence status in the UK for at least 12 months when you apply. The above date will help you decide when you will be eligible to apply. "
The date says 06 April 2010..
What this quote from your DCPR letter this tells you is the minimum qualifying period that you need to wait
after having acquired PR, which is 12 months from the date of acquisition (6 April 2010), i.e. your earliest eligibility date for naturalisation would have been 6 April 2011 assuming you met the rest of the requirements. Had you applied then - or at any point before you left the UK in April 2017 - you would have been eligible for naturalisation provided you
also met the residence requirements.
Having become eligible at one point in time does not guarantee your eligibility indefinitely (or at all). If your personal circumstances change (e.g. residency) you may become ineligible under the residency requirements for naturalisation (as in your case).
edga wrote: ↑Thu Oct 17, 2019 8:47 pm
This is from gov.uk website:
To apply for citizenship with permanent residence status you must usually have lived in the UK for 12 months after getting permanent residence status. You also need a permanent residence document that proves you’ve lived in the UK for 5 years - this can be any 5 year period.
You are correct, but that's not the full story. What your quote does not mention is that one must
also meet the
residence requirements in addition to having lived in the UK for 5y.
Have a look at
Guide AN (rev. May 2019). Here's the relevant quote on requirements:
The residence requirements:
- You must have been physically present in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands on the day 5 years before the application is received by the Home Office.
- For example, if your application is received on 05/01/2018 you should have been physically present in the UK on 05/01/2013.
- 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.
- If you are a current or former member of the UK armed forces, you may not have to meet this requirement, if you were serving outside of the UK on the date 5 years before applying.
- You must not have had more than 450 days outside the UK in the 5-year period before making the application (but see the section on Absences).
- You must not have had more than 90 days outside the UK in the 12-month period before making the application (but see the section on Absences).
- You must be free of immigration time restrictions on the date of application, and have been free of immigration time restrictions for the 12-month period before making the application (see the section on Immigration Time Restrictions).
- You must not have been in breach of the immigration rules in the 5-year period before making the application (see the section on Breach of Immigration Law).
As you can see, and as @alterhase58 and @CR001 kindly pointed out, you
cannot pick your qualifying period for the above residence requirements. The qualifying period is
always 5y going back
from the date of the application for naturalisation. For example, if you plan to apply for naturalisation on 01/11/2019, your qualifying residency period is 01/11/2014 - 01/10/2019 during which you cannot have more than 450 days outside the UK, and no more than 90 days outside of the UK in the period 01/10/2018 - 01/10/2019.
While it holds true that you have lived in the UK for 5y at some point in the past, since you were away Apr 2017 - Jan 2019, at this point in time you do not meet the 5y/450-day (immediately before applying) residence requirement. Thus, the earliest date you will become eligible for naturalisation is in January 2024 on the same day that you arrived back in the UK in January 2019 (i.e. physically present in the UK), provided you do not exceed the above allowances.
I hope I've been able to explain it in a little more detailed fashion that makes more sense.
