Severe Anxiety about Good Character requirement

Hi All,
I know you are not doctors but want to share how I feel at the moment I am so stressed and since I applied in December I have anxiety panic attacks can t sleep or eat dealing with home office again is killing me physically and mentally and I feel so insecure. Brief idea about my case:After a failed marriage I overstayed for 10 years been supported financially by family when the British parliament voted for a 6 months concession in 2008 for overstayers I was scared to face it all but this concession encouraged me and I returned to my country during the concession time . Got married in my country to British citizen, disclosed my immigration history , got my entry clearance back to UK in 2008, Got my ILR after 2 years then transferred it to BRP , in 2015 I applied for citizenship when I visited this forum I read about the 10 years rule for anyone with immigration history introduced in 2014 , so I withdrawed my application I applied again after 10 years expired in December 2018 by post paper application , still haven t heard from them, I don t have any criminal records my questions are as follows :
1-I asked a solicitor about my overstay he keeps repeating 10years means 10 years they are not going to be blaming you for the overstay or discuss before the 10 years ! but when I read other cases in this forums HO seems to ask about the overstay years even after 10 years has expired asking people how they supported themselves ...etc is my solicitor correct or is he just making up answers ?
2-I called HO and asked after nearly one month now I have not received any acknowledgement letter ?some loud woman kept repeating: WE DO NOT SEND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LETTERS TO APPLICANTS ! we send the Biometrics enrolements letters that's all !and do not call until the 6 months is expired !how accurate is this?
3-My application is paper by post how long do I have to wait to receive any correspendance from HO ?
4-Does the paper application takes longer than the online one ?
Many thanks in advance to anyone who decides to answer my questions .Good Luck to you all.

A small aside of encouragement: You're not the only one feeling this way. I certainly share your feelings, though perhaps to a lesser degree. I am not generally an anxious person, but when it came to the GCR I've been having a lot of anxiety since I submitted my application, despite not having had any criminal record, overstays, or breaches of immigration. It's such a vague part of the application that it keeps me on edge all the time, and probably will continue to do so until I receive the decision letter. As hard as it is, I mostly try to ignore my concerns by focusing on my work. It will all be over soon for all of us, and hopefully with a positive outcome!

Wrt to your application:

1) I believe you are still required to disclose your previous overstay despite being over 10y ago. Any information related to your immigration status is considered relevant and should not be withheld. Provided you have disclosed your history, then, in theory, it is unlikely to be a cause for concern as it was over 10y ago, as confirmed by your solicitor.

They will also be verifying your claims against what's on record, so they will be able to see how and when you got your clearance and subsequently ILR. This will be all be taken into account. UKVI do, however, have the right to ask you further questions that they may deem relevant be that in person, or via other means, irrespective of the nature of your application (naturalisation or other). Some of these may seem like they may be deliberately looking for grounds of refusal, but being asked details for any period of time in the past does not necessarily mean your application will be refused. They're just doing their job in being thorough, making sure there is no case of fraud, deception, or other causes of concern.

This is of course my opinion, more experienced members will have more informed opinion.

2) This is certainly strange. Naturalisation applications will normally be acknowledged either by post or email. This is explicitly mentioned in Guide AN, with the acknowledgement period listed as 2-4 weeks. Given the recent festive period, if it were me I would personally allow an extra week or two to the stated period as they are likely to have been short staffed with an increasing backlog of applications.

If it has been more than 5 weeks since you sent your application and you have yet to receive an acknowledgement or biometrics enrolment letter I suggest you continue to chase them up. If the nationality enquiries service (mail or phone) is not particularly helpful - as has been the case for a number of members here - I would suggest that you send out a letter directly to UKVI to the same address that you posted your application and supporting documents, telling them that you have not received either of these and are worried if your application may have been misplaced.

Since you don't know your HO Case ID yet (which is on the acknowledgement letter), make sure you include any relevant information to help them find and identify your application, e.g. full name and date of birth as on the application, date on the application, and postal date. If you have any postal records (e.g. tracking number) that can confirm delivery, include this too.

3) 2-4 weeks as per Guide AN

4) There is no good reason to think so. That said, the postal address is slightly different (e.g. the department number) so it could well be the case that paper applications are processed by a different team. However, there is no official information as to what order they process applications in (presumably in chronological) and mind you that each application can take a different amount of time to process based on the applicant's individual circumstances, the caseworker, as well as the amount of time it takes contact any third parties as part of their background checks.

AnotherUUID wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 17, 2019 3:19 pm

A small aside of encouragement: You're not the only one feeling this way. I certainly share your feelings, though perhaps to a lesser degree. I am not generally an anxious person, but when it came to the GCR I've been having a lot of anxiety since I submitted my application, despite not having had any criminal record, overstays, or breaches of immigration. It's such a vague part of the application that it keeps me on edge all the time, and probably will continue to do so until I receive the decision letter. As hard as it is, I mostly try to ignore my concerns by focusing on my work. It will all be over soon for all of us, and hopefully with a positive outcome!

To add to the encouragement, whilst GCR remain the sole discretion of the secretary of state, he/she is required to apply the discretion fairly. So if you don't have a criminal record, overstays or breaches, you should pass the GCR. Even in cases where you have one of these, the secretary of state should look at the application holistically for evidence of good character instead of immediately refusing the application. There is legal precedence to this effect.

To give you further hope, someone who sent their application in by post on December 14 got the acknowledgement email on January 14 and biometric letter on January 16. Paper applications can be slower than online to get to the biometric stage (no evidence of it being any slower of faster after they collected your biometrics).

Thanks AnotherUUID for taking time to answer my questions.
-I did disclose my overstay and I included the form with my entry clearance application they gave me at the airport when I was leaving voluntarily in 2008 ,

I will wait until the end of January then I will write to them as you advised.

My anxiety attacks are because of my worries the insecurities I lived in the past and the fact I am not able to switch of it s draining Ihave no idea how to bear the waiting I am not working so my mind is constantly thinking of this subject . thanks again for your kindness and positivity.