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My husband lived in the UK from 1999 until February 2010. We had to return to Australia all of a sudden when my husband's father died. My husband was executor of his will and the beneficiary of his father's business. The business was not in a state to sell and he had to run in for the last three years to get it to a point to sell. He has now done that and wishes to return to the UK, with me and our 2 year old son. What are his chances of getting UK citizenship after being absent from the country for all that time? Are they likely to exercise discretion in this instance?

Anything over 900 days is a big problem and that is assuming he has lived in the UK for over 8 years. I am assuming you are BC and your husband has ILR?
http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... l#p1031530

HI, thanks for your reply. No I'm Australian. I lived in London for five years. That's where we met. Is it even worth engaging a migration agent then or you think our chances are slim?

Sorry, further to that my husband does have ILR. He lived there for 11 years.

Your husband has been out of the UK for a very long period and his application would definitely be refused. He needs to be resident in the UK for the last 5 years and his absences must not exceed 450 days in total and 90 days in the final year.
Should you become British citizen he would have to wait 3 years to have been resident with absences of 270 days in total.

Only very rarely would we disregard absences in excess of 900 days (540 days for 6(2)
applications). If your absences are more than this limit your application is likely to fail and
your fee will not be fully refunded

Page 7-8:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... let-an.pdf

Redshoes77 according to your post it seems like his ILR is lapsed as he stayed for more then two years outside the UK so he is more then likely may find it difficult even to return to the UK.

Does the fact he returned for a month in May/June last year change things at all?

If he has been absent from UK for more than 2 years it is very likely that UKBA upon his entry to UK will revoke his ILR. If they overseen that when he returned last year than he is very lucky.
Please read carefully the link I have sent you as your husband must meet residence requirements in order to apply for naturalization and there is no other way about it.

redshoes77 wrote:Does the fact he returned for a month in May/June last year change things at all?

He'll have been admitted as a visitor most likely which will definitely cancel ILR, check his stamps tho...

If he had ILR he should first try to apply as a returning resident

Apply for a Returning Resident visa
You need a Returning Resident visa to come back to live in the UK if you were previously settled (given ‘indefinite leave to remain’) and you’ve been away for more than 2 years.

Eligibility
You must:
plan to return to live in the UK permanently
have been settled in the UK when you last left
have been away for more than 2 years
not have been given public funds to help you leave the UK
You must also be able to prove that you have strong ties to the UK, for example you have:

strong family ties in the UK
you’ve lived in the UK most of your life
https://www.gov.uk/returning-resident-visa

Thank you so much for all your advice everyone. Can I ask are you basing your answers on a reading of the rules or are you migration agents? Just wondering if it's worth paying a migration agent to look into it or whether that's what you are already!

This is just a forum. Although there are some members here that gave me more accurate and detailed answers than my two migration solicitors did.