Seeking Advice on British Citizenship Absence Guidelines, pleas help.

[Ashteel]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently navigating the process of applying for British citizenship and I'm a bit puzzled about how to handle absences that exceed 730 days but are under 900 days. According to the British citizenship guidance, you can explain your absences if they exceed 730 days, with one acceptable reason being the inability to return due to a global pandemic.

**My Questions:**

1. **Disregarding Excess Absences**: How does the process of disregarding absences work in practice? Is it just a matter of writing a cover letter and explaining the reasons for the extended absence? Have any of you had success with this approach, especially using the pandemic as a reason?

2. **Accuracy of Entry/Exit Data**: How accurate is the entry and exit data that the authorities have on us? I have an EU passport and settled status plus one year of residence. I’m considering avoiding certain flights to ensure my absences fit within the required number of days. Is this a viable strategy or is the data they have too precise for this to work?
I requested my records in SARU and I can see that they are missing some flights.

Thanks in advance for any insights or experiences you can share!

Best,

[contorted_svy]

I would STRONGLY advise against not declaring certain flights and hoping to get away with it.

Note that to ask for discretion on one requirement you need to satisfy all other requirements. You can't sk for discretion on both absences requirements for example.

With that out of the way, successful cases of people getting discretion on COVID related absences are very few, and only with extremely well documented reasons (cancelled flights, life-saving surgeries abroad, etc). Just writing a cover letter without evidence won't do - and any absences that occurred after the borders reopened are unlikely to be accepted if one simply elected not to travel.

You can however ask for discretion for absences in the range you mention. You need to prove you have lived in the UK without substantial absences for 7 years instead of 5 and produce evidence of your links to the UK, eg a letter from your employer, a tenancy agreement/mortgage report to show your finances/employment/family/estates are in the UK.

[secret.simon]

2. **Accuracy of Entry/Exit Data**: How accurate is the entry and exit data that the authorities have on us? I have an EU passport and settled status plus one year of residence. I’m considering avoiding certain flights to ensure my absences fit within the required number of days. Is this a viable strategy or is the data they have too precise for this to work?

If you acquire naturalisation by deception/fraud (which is what non-disclosure of facts is) and it is subsequently found out, that naturalisation can be revoked and you could be deprived of your British citizenship.