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Hi, I am from Slovakia, country EU living and working in London from 2005, almost 12 years. I want to go for Naturalisation citizenship, but I would have few questions:
a/ Immigration lawyer told me I can apply for naturalization WITHOUT certificate of PR , as my PR status comes automatically after 5 years, but he said he would recommend to do certificate PR at first to make sure all is good and I could be sure I will get Naturalisation successful. But I read here many times , that you have to wait 12 months after PR before you apply for Naturalisation, so what is truth? From what he told me it seems , that I already had PR status after first 5 years in UK, therefore now, when I am here 11 years I would not need to wait 12 months before applying for Naturalisation. What is truth, will I have to wait, or not, once I have a certificate of PR?
b/ Do you think certificate of PR would be enough for me , if UK goes out of EU after referendum? I am in UK 11 years, have a house, permanent job, could I still be kicked out without having citizenship if UK goes out of EU? How do you see this?
Huge thanks

chimerka wrote:Hi, I am from Slovakia, country EU living and working in London from 2005, almost 12 years. I want to go for Naturalisation citizenship, but I would have few questions:

a/ Immigration lawyer told me I can apply for naturalization WITHOUT certificate of PR , as my PR status comes automatically after 5 years, but he said he would recommend to do certificate PR at first to make sure all is good and I could be sure I will get Naturalisation successful. But I read here many times , that you have to wait 12 months after PR before you apply for Naturalisation, so what is truth?

From what he told me it seems , that I already had PR status after first 5 years in UK, therefore now, when I am here 11 years I would not need to wait 12 months before applying for Naturalisation. What is truth, will I have to wait, or not, once I have a certificate of PR?

b/ Do you think certificate of PR would be enough for me , if UK goes out of EU after referendum? I am in UK 11 years, have a house, permanent job, could I still be kicked out without having citizenship if UK goes out of EU? How do you see this?
Huge thanks

Hello,
it is all about complying with EU regulations that counts here.

btw - if you have been here since 2005 isn't it approx 10 years in UK not 12.

Anyways...for an EEA national, after 5 years of continuously exercising treating rights as a qulified person in UK then PR is acquired automatically.
It means the person has settled status.

In this context a qualified person is a category such as worker, jobseeker, student, etc.

Applying for a PR card is just a simple way to confirm the applicant has acquired PR - the PR card does not grant the person PR/settled status.

If not married to a BC, such a person needs to be free of immigration time restrictions (ie to have settled status/PR) for 12 months before being eligible to apply for the privilege of citizenship.

Note: As mentioned, obtaining a PR card is optional.
In relation to naturalisation it is also an optional step but, yes, it helps confirm status.

Having the optional PR card also simplifies the type of proof that has to be submitted with the naturalisation application.

By applying for a PR card first you are risking less outlay as the fee is lower.
Any possible problem will be identified & could be sorted out before applying for naturalisation.

In your case it appears you may have PR already & (if so) you are likely to have held it for 12 months already.
So...if you have been here as a qualified person (for example, a worker, jobseeker, student, etc) exercising treaty rights & you can prove it (& meet all the other requirements) then you are good to apply.

Note: Slovakia is an A8 EEA country so if you were working in UK before 2011 you need to check how your work complied with WRS.
Check whether you registered & were certified within WRS, etc.

This is important so that any work before 2011 can be classed as authorised work by a qualified person;
ie so that it is recognised as legitimately exercising treaty rights & contributing to your PR clock.

If you were working but not registered properly your PR clock will only have started in 2011 (when WRS was considered to have been aboliished).
In that case PR as a worker could be acquired by 2016.
So it's very important to check all that kind of detail.

If you were in some other category of qualified person, such as a student, then WRS doesn't matter. But those categories have their own rules.
Perhaps this is why the lawyer also mentioned applying for a PR card first.

About the future of UK in/out of Europe, I leave that question as 'one for the pub'.

Best of luck.

Thank you very much for your reply, its very helpful , only just noticed that right now, as I don't get notifications in email and can only log in from one PC, my phone says my IP address is banned, don't know why:{. Huge thanks for advice

chimerka wrote:Thank you very much for your reply, its very helpful , only just noticed that right now, as I don't get notifications in email and can only log in from one PC, my phone says my IP address is banned, don't know why:{. Huge thanks for advice

It seems that some phone networks are more susceptible than others to be blacklisted by the forum's security measures.

Since you asked your question back in September (gosh, how time flies) you need to be aware that the rules have changed;
DCPR is now a mandatory prerequisite for the privilege of citizenship.

So you do need to apply for confirmation of PR before shooting for naturalisation.
And you should have acquired PR by now so you should be able to crack on with the DCPR application as and when you wish.