Immigrationboards.com

Hello,

Context:
I study at a university in the UK and I've done an Erasmus placement in an European country for a period of 10 months;this is compulsory on my degree programme.

In the Booklet AN, they only state conditions at which absences of upto 180 days would be disregarded.

I would like to apply for British citizenship via naturalization in October 2018. This means that counting backwards from then, I would have been away from the UK for more less 256 days in the last 12 months.

Question:
Would a compulsory Erasmus placement, accounting for 256 days of absence in the last 12 months, be considered enough of a reason for the absence to be disregarded?


I do apologise for any mistakes I might have made and thank you in advance.

You will certainly run the risk of your application failing due to the final year's absences. Unless anyone here can share direct experience.
Perhaps you should consider delaying the application by a few months to reduce the last year's absences to the level where discretion could be applied. As you have PR presumably (and therefore qualify for the new "settled status" automatically) there should be no issue waiting with the application, even until after 29 March 2019. Nationality laws are not governed by EU regulations.

UK (immigration and naturalisation) laws are much more stricter and precise compared to EU laws. If you have been absent for 256 days in the year before the date of application for naturalisation, then the application will almost certainly be rejected (with no refund of fees).

As Alterhase58 has advised, it would be much better if you postpone your application until when you do meet the absence requirement.

Yes I have the PR so there is no rush. Thanks for sharing your views on my case @alterhase58 and @secret.simon.