Immigrationboards.com

My wife and I are planning to apply for Naturalisation in Oct 2014 since we were granted ILR last October. However, I have a slight concern when it comes to residence requirements as far as my wife is concerned. She is in her initial stages of pregnancy and was showing signs of depression and deteriorating health and so we decided it best for her to spend some time with her parents who are abroad. She is hoping to be back in July which would mean she would have been outside UK for 88 days in the last 12 months but 470 days in the last 5 years, as opposed to normal 450 days allowance. Do you think this could be a problem? I was hoping some discretion could be applied in this case citing her condition where she needed greater care and attention. Also the AN booklet mentions that total number of absences normally disregarded is 480 days. Therefore how would you rate my chances? We meet all other conditions. For discretion to be applied, do I need to furnish any other evidences?
Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Sudarsanam

Hi,

I am also under the similar situation where my wife was out of country for 120 days, we got out ILR on August 2013 and planning to go for citizenship this August. Since she stayed more than 90 days in the past 12 months period, i am slighlty concerned about this and looking for suggestion from other members. Her total absense in the past 3 years is around 160 days.

Sudarsanam, absences up to 480 days are usually disregarded. Read page 7-8:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... let-an.pdf

NM, I had 120 days of absences in the final year and I applied for discretion. My application was approved 8 weeks later.

Milan69, many thanks for your response.
I have read this but does it mean my case would automatically get accepted without me having to apply for discretion and give additional details/evidences to explain my wife's slightly longer absence?
Or do I still need to provide an explanation for this in the application form?

Thanks again.

I wouldn't think you need to apply for discretion but I am not 100 % sure.
When applying for discretion you need to show that you have made UK your home with your family and that most of your estate is here.
This is what I wrote on page 15:
I wish to state that I have made the UK my home together with my family - my wife and 16 year old son who are both British citizens and live in the United Kingdom. With my family, I live in a rented house which is in my name. In addition, I have a large part of my estate in the United Kingdom. In the past few months, due to the nature of my work, I had to spend several weeks working abroad and therefore I am requesting for discretion to be applied with regard to the requirement to have not been absent from the country for more than 90 days in the final year."

Thanks for the info milan69. But I would like to be 100% certain if I need to apply for discretion or not.
Hope the other experts/moderators here can help me with this.

Thanks.

Forgot to add that my wife and 3 yr old daughter stay with me in the UK permanently in a rented accommodation at the moment. I am not entirely sure if this would satisfy the "substantial part of the estate" requirement for discretion.

Thanks

I live in rented accommodation as well.