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Hi

My wife is applying for British Citizenship.

We have been married for almost 7 years and she obtained the ILR in May 2011 and has been living in the UK since 2009.

In section 2 for the British Citizenship the AN guide states the following:

2.2 Please note: You should also check that you were physically present in the UK 5 years (3 years if you are married to or in civil partnership with a British citizen) before the date that the application will be received by the Home Office or other receiving authority (see page 21 “Where to send your application form”). If you do not meet this requirement your application is unlikely to be successful, unless you were in the UK armed forces at that time.

The thing is 3 years ago we were on holiday for a month outside of the UK therefore it would appear according to the above statement we cant apply just yet. Would this be correct? - if so I find this pretty strange as 5 years ago we were physically present in the UK.

Am I reading too much into this?

On another note is the checking service worth the cost?

Thanks

John.

john H UK wrote:...

The thing is 3 years ago we were on holiday for a month outside of the UK therefore it would appear according to the above statement we cant apply just yet. Would this be correct? - if so I find this pretty strange as 5 years ago we were physically present in the UK.

Am I reading too much into this?

On another note is the checking service worth the cost?

Thanks
John.

Correct, if wife applies as a spouse she will be refused if absent 3 years ago.

No, not reading too much into this.

Yes, NCS is worth the cost.

thank you for the reply noajthan.

So even though we have been married for almost 7 years the application form only bases the physically present bit on 3 years rather than 5 - I don't really understand the reasoning behind this. Why cant she base the application on 5 years?

john H UK wrote:thank you for the reply noajthan.

So even though we have been married for almost 7 years the application form only bases the physically present bit on 3 years rather than 5 - I don't really understand the reasoning behind this. Why cant she base the application on 5 years?

There are two ways to apply ...

1) under section 6(1) of BNA - apply in applicant's own right; physical presence in UK required 5 years from date of application.
Plus 12 months free of immigration time restrictions before applying, ie holding ILR for at least 1 year.

2) under section 6(2) of BNA - as spouse of BC; physical presence in UK required 3 years from date of application.
No need to be settled in UK for 12 months before applying.

You can dig into all the details in the AN guidance - after all the devil is in the detail:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... r_2015.pdf

This may seem silly question but can my wife select "apply in applicant's own right"? I have looked at the whole form including section 6 and I cant see anywhere where a distinction is made between the two options. The only place that I can see is when she puts my name down as a spouse in section 1.32.

How does the home office know if you are applying in your own right or as a spouse?

Thanks

Yes she can, but a number of members on the forum have posted that they applied in their own right and received letters that they are being considered as spouse of British citizen.

Your best option would be to wait till she meets the 3 year residence requirement. The small increase in fees is a drop compared to being refused and losing the full fee.

Thank you for your help.

I think we will wait until April as she was physically in the UK 3 years ago April.

Just seems to be a very pedantic rule considering we were outside of the UK on holiday in March 2013 and my wife has had the ILR since 2011 - kicking myself we didn't apply earlier