SP30 speeding conviction (5 pts and £260 fine)

Hi everyone,

I would be grateful if you could kindly offer me some advice on the likelihood of my application for naturlisation as a British Citizen succeeding with my single speeding conviction.

03/04/2013 - Received ILR after 5 years under Tier 1 General
26/05/2013 - Date of speeding offence (caught in Scotland on my motorbike during a tour of the UK)
13/08/2013 - Plead guilty via post and was convicted of offence code SP30 at Highland Dingwall court (in abstentia) and received 5 penalty points and a £260 fine (promptly paid and settled)

I have never received any other convictions/cautions/or otherwise.

03/04/2014 - Planning on submitting my naturalisation form (AN) to the home office using a nationality checking service.

Guidance document BN7 - NATURALISATION AS A BRITISH CITIZEN says:
"We will normally disregard a single conviction for a minor offence (e.g. speeding or other “regulatory” offences) which result in a bind over, conditional discharge or relatively small fine or compensation order, if a person is suitable for citizenship in all other respects."

Questions:
1) Would my speeding conviction be classified as minor?
2) What are the chances of me being successful? Apart from the single speeding conviction I am 100% suitable for citizenship in all other respects. I've seen some reference to waiting at least 1 year/3 years etc before applying but I can't find the corresponding home office publication, so please provide links if this is the case.
3) Does an unsuccessful application negatively affect future applications?

Thanks for your help!

See Question 8 of the British Citizenship – Good Character Requirement FAQs (click) for the discretion.

As it has gone to court, I think you may have to wait for 3 years from the date of conviction unfortunately , unless you want to take a chance..

Just a quick update - I've decided to go for it despite the conviction so wish me luck!!

I'm using Allerton Kaye who are specialist immigration solicitors to help me with the application - aiming to submit it in April. They seem to be confident I'll get it based on my otherwise impeccable history in the UK.

Will let you know what happens!

loslyfgmail wrote:Just a quick update - I've decided to go for it despite the conviction so wish me luck!!

I'm using Allerton Kaye who are specialist immigration solicitors to help me with the application - aiming to submit it in April. They seem to be confident I'll get it based on my otherwise impeccable history in the UK.

Will let you know what happens!

Please don't I will advise you contact HO before you do. Laws are made for reasons... I have seen similar case were a British Amy application was unsuccessful because of this, despite he had served for more than five years.

Lawyers will carry out your instruction provided you pay them! Nevertheless all thing are possible to those that believed you can give it a try but you stand chance of losing the application fees...

Please read by copy and paste or clicking on both links one after other both are the same case:
http://www.freemovement.org.uk/2014/03/ ... tizenship/
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2014/254.html

uk4rex.co.uk wrote:

loslyfgmail wrote:Just a quick update - I've decided to go for it despite the conviction so wish me luck!!

I'm using Allerton Kaye who are specialist immigration solicitors to help me with the application - aiming to submit it in April. They seem to be confident I'll get it based on my otherwise impeccable history in the UK.

Will let you know what happens!

Please don't I will advise you contact HO before you do. Laws are made for reasons... I have seen similar case were a British Amy application was unsuccessful because of this, despite he had served for more than five years.

Lawyers will carry out your instruction provided you pay them! Nevertheless all thing are possible to those that believed you can give it a try but you stand chance of losing the application fees...

Please read by copy and paste or clicking on both links one after other both are the same case:
http://www.freemovement.org.uk/2014/03/ ... tizenship/
http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2014/254.html

Thanks for sharing this with us! Very detailed.

Thank you for the links uk4rex.co.uk! From what I can tell though, they seem to suggest that the Home Office made an error in their judgement of the good character requirement in Hiri's case, and that they actually needed to take an overall view of his good character rather than just focusing on the single speeding offence.

I do realise however that I'm still taking a chance with the application though, and potentially I'll be a couple of grand down after all of this (solicitor fees included) . But I feel like I stand a good chance though, so I'm still taking the risk...

All my documents are with the solicitor and application will be made next week, wish me luck

Will keep this thread updated with the results!

Hi, Can you please update on what happened to your application?

Out of curiosity, whatever happened to your application?

My guess will be couple of grand down.

[quote="hareaca"]Hi, Can you please update on what happened to your application?[/quote]

Hi,
My application was thru, I just declared the details of the conviconviction and enclosed my driving license.

hareaca wrote:

hareaca wrote:Hi, Can you please update on what happened to your application?

Hi,
My application was thru, I just declared the details of the conviconviction and enclosed my driving license.

Hi

Have you got your approval for your naturalisation application???

Can you please elaborate on what basis you've applied eg spouse of a British or other ways ?? Many thanks waiting for your reply.

Hi all, just to update you on my application, unfortunately my solicitors were quite good at smooth talking but not very good on action - see all the negative reviews here: http://www.solicitor.info/solicitors/allerton-kaye/24/1
Now just trying to get my money back through the SRA.

I've heeded the advice on this forum and I've delayed my application until 3 years after my conviction date (another 10 months to go). Will let you know when I apply.

So, good news, I applied for citizenship middle of July, about a month before the 3 year anniversary of the date of my speeding conviction. In my cover letter I was sure to include the following knowing that my application would take a couple of months to be decided:

Chapter_18_Annex_D_v02 httpswww.gov.ukgovernmentuploadssystemuploadsattachment_datafile406368Chapter_18_Annex_D_v02.pdf

Pg 5, point v

“The phrase “the last 3 years” (line 4 in Table 2.1) is counted back from the date of application. However, where a person is clear on the date the application is decided, the decision maker will not refuse solely on this basis. “

My conviction will be 3 years by 13 August 2016, after which my application should not be refused on that basis.

Pg 28, Section 10: Exceptional Grants

“There may be exceptional cases where a person will be granted citizenship even where they ordinarily would fall to be refused.
Exceptions will generally fall into one of the following categories:
a. the person’s conviction is for an offence which is not recognised in the UK and
there is no comparable offence. See section 2.4 - Non-UK Convictions; or
b. the person has one single non-custodial sentence, it occurred within the first 2 years of the 3 (i.e. the person has had no offences within the last 12 months), there are strong countervailing factors which suggest the person is of good character in all other regards and the decision to refuse would be disproportionate.”


At the end of September I received confirmation that my application for citizenship was accepted. Thanks a lot to everyone on this forum