gainvidya wrote:Another point to add I dont intend to leave UK forever but for short or long(max 2 year) term. I have my wife and kid who will continue to reside in UK.
Gainividya, this is vexing! Why didn't you state this in the first place? This is critical, material information. Your original post as written looks as if you're trying to pull a fast one.
Alright, listen. You need to have a good read of
this. You might even want to engage a solicitor about it, paying particular attention to almost all of Section 2. You need to be honest and upfront on your application, but you need to make it clear that you are maintaining a permanent, principle home in the UK and that your family is staying there and that you are planning on returning permanently to the UK after two years. This point needs to be carefully argued, as your application may be refused otherwise. But you need to be clear about your intentions whatever you do.
If you do the NCS, you will get your passport back. So you can travel and go wherever you want. Then you just need to wait and see if the Home Office accepts your arguments.
If they don't, they don't. Naturalisation is at the discretion of the Home Secretary, so the appeal rights aren't as broad as they are for residency. You'll likely have to wait until you return to the UK permanently in two years. Hopefully you won't get caught up in the whole probationary citizenship sing-song, but you'll have to see. Remember that as currently stipulated, current ILR-holders have until July 2013 to get citizenship under the current laws. If you wait until 2011 to come back permanently, you might not satisfy the residency requirements for a naturalisation application before July 2013. So keep that in mind.
If they do accept your application, this gets a bit tricky. You can schedule a private or regular group ceremony at your convenience in the UK. You can get back here travelling on your valid Indian passport without a problem in doing so. But once you do your citizenship ceremony, you won't be Indian any longer. That passport will no longer be valid, so naughty Gainvidya if you travel on it!
But sticking to the British side of things, if you are *completely* honest on your citizenship application and the Home Office accepts your arguments, I don't foresee a problem with your applying for a UK passport from Saudi Arabia. You told them you were temporarily working abroad and they were okay with it, so you should be fine to apply from Saudi. (Keep photocopies of your naturalisation application, by the way!) The problem might be if you apply for a passport abroad and you've strung a whole load of tales about currently living and working in the UK. That might be bad. Very bad.
Applying for your passport in the UK might pose a logistical problem. You would need to submit your Indian passport to the UK Passport Office, so you effectively wouldn't be able to travel for up to six weeks while your passport application is being processed. I'm not sure your Saudi employers would like that.
Your only sin here will be travelling on an invalid Indian passport for your return to Saudi Arabia. This might bite you in the bum if you apply for your PIO or OIC, and the Indians put together that you used the Indian passport after getting UK citizenship. Again, that might be bad. Very bad.
Here's what I would do to remain absolutely legal at all times. Apply for citizenship in November as planned, remembering to be completely honest about your intentions. With the current backlog of naturalisation applications due to the upcoming rule changes, you might not get a decision until January, February or March or even later. You can delay your ceremony up to three months later until April, May or June then. Or even later, depending on when you're notified. Plan your annual holiday from Saudi back to the UK to coincide with your ceremony and UK passport application. After working in Saudi for up to seven months, I would hope you could take a six-week holiday back home. Yeah? Maybe look into that? This way you will be breaking no laws and your good karma stays intact.
The second option is that when you lodge your naturalisation application in which you are being completely honest and upfront, you write in the section where you want the citizenship ceremony to be held "British Embassy-Riyadh" or "British Consulate General-Jeddah". This way if the application gets approved, they will forward the naturalisation certificate to the British post in Saudi Arabia. Then you can be sworn in there and get your passport there. Again, you can only do this if you have been completely honest. But when I think about it, this might be the best solution possible for you! You will always be legal from both an Indian and UK point of view, and you will minimise your travel. You'll just need to make sure that your Saudi visa gets switched over to your new UK passport as soon as possible.
So yeah, those are a couple of options. Good luck, and remember to share valuable information when it's useful. Particularly to yourself!
