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Hi, I have a spent suspended sentence, given in 2007 in Poland. The sentence is: 2 years suspended for 5 years, now I would like to apply for British Citizenship and I'm getting mixed comments on-line in regards to suspended notice. It says that this will be treated as non-custodial sentence, so should not affect my application and some sites say that it will be treated as in prison sentence. Could anyone help me to understand how this sentence would affect my application? Thank you in advance. Greg

GregG wrote:Hi, I have a spent suspended sentence, given in 2007 in Poland. The sentence is: 2 years suspended for 5 years, now I would like to apply for British Citizenship and I'm getting mixed comments on-line in regards to suspended notice. It says that this will be treated as non-custodial sentence, so should not affect my application and some sites say that it will be treated as in prison sentence. Could anyone help me to understand how this sentence would affect my application? Thank you in advance. Greg

Was the sentence ever activated?

You can dig into this vital matter with relevant HO guidance on 'good character':
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _D_v02.pdf
- see section 2.4 re foreign offences/convictions
- see also 2.2 x), page 6 re suspended sentences

See Q1 of the FAQ - http://www.immigrationboards.com/britis ... 36725.html

noajthan wrote:

GregG wrote:Hi, I have a spent suspended sentence, given in 2007 in Poland. The sentence is: 2 years suspended for 5 years, now I would like to apply for British Citizenship and I'm getting mixed comments on-line in regards to suspended notice. It says that this will be treated as non-custodial sentence, so should not affect my application and some sites say that it will be treated as in prison sentence. Could anyone help me to understand how this sentence would affect my application? Thank you in advance. Greg

Was the sentence ever activated?

You can dig into this vital matter with relevant HO guidance on 'good character':
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _D_v02.pdf
- see section 2.4 re foreign offences/convictions
- see also 2.2 x), page 6 re suspended sentences

Hi,

Thank you so much for your reply.

No, it was never activated. I have gone through the Chapter_18_Annex_D_v02 file but I still don't get which category do I fall into? Is suspended sentence the same as non-custodial?

A suspended prison sentence will be treated as a “non-custodial offence or other out of court disposal that is recorded on a person’s criminal record” (i.e. line 4 in Table 2.1). It means that if you did not break the law again and go to prison, the suspended sentence will not be a bar as more than 3 years had lapsed, though it may depend on the nature of the offence.