Naturalisation as a refugee - Breach of immigration law

[FMSAR]

Dear all,

I am new to this forum and have been reading many topics on it intensively. It is great to have such a community, and I am thankful for everyone contributing to it, especially those who are purely helping others as of goodwill.
I could not find similar topics specific to my situation, hence, I decided to start this topic.
I lived in the UK from 03/2006 to 04/2011 on a student visa. In early 2011, a political situation developed in my home country. I overstayed from 04/2011 to 08/2011 because I was waiting to see how the political situation would unfold. It became apparent that the situation would be long-term. Therefore, I sought Asylum in 08/2011 and fully explained why I overstayed my visa as above. I obtained Refugee Status on 01/2012. Fast forward 5 years, I obtained IRL. Now, I am due to apply for neutralisation having met the residency requirement, but I am concern over the 'good character' requirement given the overstay from 04/2011 to 08/2011.

From gathering information on this forum and elsewhere. It seems that the Home Office would apply a discretion for illegal stay up to a period of 1 month (or 2 in special circumstances). I therefore would like to know if there is some probability of obtaining neutralisation by using the same argument for overstaying as I did 6 years ago when I sought asylum, and given that now I have lived in the UK for a long time and for the last 5 years as a refugee, I obtained bachelor's, masters, and currently have a good job, (and no other breaches, e.g fines, cautions, or the like).

My question is then:
Is there a chance of approval if I applied for neutralisation now? ( I am happy to give it a try if a refusal would not restart the 10 years ban), If I do, should I include a cover letter (if you suggest doing so, could me give some guide as to what to include in it).

Secondly, the application form is asking for the date of first entry in the UK (where the guide says 'with the intention of staying long-term). Since I came in 2006, and applied for Asylum in 2011 from the UK, which date should I put. I saw many similar questions in the forum, but no definite answer. I would be grateful if we could clear this point for all of us on the forum with a similar situation.

Many thanks again for everyone who is contributing to this forum. I am thankful for all your efforts. However, I would like to make one small observation; I noticed that a large percentage of applicants are not posting the outcome of their application for neutralisation (unless the outcome is negative). I fully understand that we are all seeking help to make our application successful, but please understand that we should give back to this community by sharing information of positive outcome and the route to it (details of communications with the Home Office, cover letters, and letters for reconsideration), and not abandon this forum once we have obtained our approval. I understand that many people are sharing these information, but still, a large percentage are not. Thank you again.

[vinny]

Please continue in existing topic.