Effect of not declaring caution (happened 5 years ago) on Naturalisation application

Ometz wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:41 am

I got my ILR in June 2018 and have applied for UK citizenship in June 2019.

I have very clean record in UK except following bad incident.
In the first week of June 2014, I had an argument with my partner and she called police on me.
The next day the matter was resolved and the police let me go and said that there is no further action.
I don't remember if I have signed something or if any caution was given.
But I didn't agree to any offence and also my partner realised her mistake and took the complain back too.
We were also told by police officer that this incident will not go on record and will not effect visa related issues.

Later on, I absolutely forgot about this incident as if this didn't happen. As we were also told by police that
nothing will go on record, so we didn't care at all about this issue.
After this incident, I have applied Tier 2 visa twice and then got ILR too in June 2018 without any trouble.
I have always put "No" to any Cautions related questions in the Tier-2/ILR application form.

Now in June 2019, I have applied for citizenship.
Today (4 months after applying for citizenship) I got a letter from home office where they mentioned that they are doing good character related checks and waiting for outcome from internal/external agencies.
My arrest in 2014 made me worried and I looked at the Criminal record report which I got from ACRO in 2015.
I noticed in the report from ACRO that although they mention about No Further Action (NFA) about offence, but there is a following category with some reference number.
Court/Caution/Force Reference: xxxxxxxxxxx

I checked the letter I got from the Lawyer (which was assigned to me for a day when police investigated the matter in 2014). The letter from lawyer also said "No Further Action" and there is nothing about caution or warning.

My problem is that, I am confuse. I dont know if I was given a caution.
Even if I am given a caution then it happened 5 years ago, so should be ignored by home office.
But as I didn't mention it in my citizenship application (Because I dont know if its a caution or not), I am worried if it is going to be considered as Deception.

Shall I email home office and inform case worker about this?
Please advice

Ometz wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:41 am

I got my ILR in June 2018 and have applied for UK citizenship in June 2019.

I have very clean record in UK except following bad incident.
In the first week of June 2014, I had an argument with my partner and she called police on me.
The next day the matter was resolved and the police let me go and said that there is no further action.
I don't remember if I have signed something or if any caution was given.
But I didn't agree to any offence and also my partner realised her mistake and took the complain back too.
We were also told by police officer that this incident will not go on record and will not effect visa related issues.

Later on, I absolutely forgot about this incident as if this didn't happen. As we were also told by police that
nothing will go on record, so we didn't care at all about this issue.
After this incident, I have applied Tier 2 visa twice and then got ILR too in June 2018 without any trouble.
I have always put "No" to any Cautions related questions in the Tier-2/ILR application form.

Now in June 2019, I have applied for citizenship.
Today (4 months after applying for citizenship) I got a letter from home office where they mentioned that they are doing good character related checks and waiting for outcome from internal/external agencies.
My arrest in 2014 made me worried and I looked at the Criminal record report which I got from ACRO in 2015.
I noticed in the report from ACRO that although they mention about No Further Action (NFA) about offence, but there is a following category with some reference number.
Court/Caution/Force Reference: xxxxxxxxxxx

I checked the letter I got from the Lawyer (which was assigned to me for a day when police investigated the matter in 2014). The letter from lawyer also said "No Further Action" and there is nothing about caution or warning.

My problem is that, I am confuse. I dont know if I was given a caution.
Even if I am given a caution then it happened 5 years ago, so should be ignored by home office.
But as I didn't mention it in my citizenship application (Because I dont know if its a caution or not), I am worried if it is going to be considered as Deception.

Shall I email home office and inform case worker about this?
Please advice

Ometz wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:47 pm

Hi
Thanks for replies.
I was at police station for whole day from 4am to 5pm. I don't remember exactly what police said, but I believe they never said caution to me.
I am worried that even if they had said caution, I wouldn't have understood it as I didn't know its meaning and the implications.

What worries me is that, on my police record from ACRO, i see following with the incident.
Court/Caution/Force Reference: xxxxxxxxxxx
I don't know if this number is a Force Reference number, or its a caution number. I never went to court, so can't be court number.
If I can see this information on police record, then definitely Home Office can also see.
I believe sending email and maybe a postal letter to home office, explaining the situation would be safer??
I just don't want that not declaring it considered as deception and then getting a ban of 10 years for citizenship.

Ometz wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:41 am

My problem is that, I am confuse. I dont know if I was given a caution.

Ometz wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:47 pm

What worries me is that, on my police record from ACRO, i see following with the incident.
Court/Caution/Force Reference: xxxxxxxxxxx
I don't know if this number is a Force Reference number, or its a caution number. I never went to court, so can't be court number.
If I can see this information on police record, then definitely Home Office can also see.
I believe sending email and maybe a postal letter to home office, explaining the situation would be safer??
I just don't want that not declaring it considered as deception and then getting a ban of 10 years for citizenship.

Ometz wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2019 12:47 pm

Hi
Thanks for replies.
I was at police station for whole day from 4am to 5pm. I don't remember exactly what police said, but I believe they never said caution to me.
I am worried that even if they had said caution, I wouldn't have understood it as I didn't know its meaning and the implications.

What worries me is that, on my police record from ACRO, i see following with the incident.
Court/Caution/Force Reference: xxxxxxxxxxx
I don't know if this number is a Force Reference number, or its a caution number. I never went to court, so can't be court number.
If I can see this information on police record, then definitely Home Office can also see.
I believe sending email and maybe a postal letter to home office, explaining the situation would be safer??
I just don't want that not declaring it considered as deception and then getting a ban of 10 years for citizenship.

Ometz wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 05, 2019 6:11 pm

Thanks to all for useful information.
Karo6425, I have always used the following email to provide information to home office as I always got a reply from them
nationalitysupportteamfmt@homeoffice.gov.uk.

xavieryves, thanks for your reply too. I believe they haven't decided anything on my application yet as I just got a letter from them yesterday (letter was dated 1st Nov) and they said that they are waiting for the outcome of "good character" checks.
Apart from sending information to them by email, I have also posted a letter to them on the following address

Department 1
UK Visas and Immigration
The Capital Building
New Hall Place
Liverpool
L3 9PP

I may sound paranoid or something, but to be honest, I can't stand the chance of refusal based on deception.