Citizenship application no reply after 10 months
Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:05 am
Dear Forum members,
I'd be very grateful for any advice you can give. I'm a British Citizen (I was granted citizenship in 1986), and my husband, an Iraqi national, applied for naturalisation as the spouse of a British Citizenship, on the 5-year route. We have two children, who are British by birth. He applied in March 2018, a few weeks after he was granted ILR. Now 10 months later, he hasn't had a response. He chased by email twice, and got the standard response.
We have been thinking about what could be causing the delay. It may be that when his FLR(M) expired, he had a 10-day overstay before posting his ILR application to the Home Office. So in effect, he could have been in breach of the immigration rules. He did include a letter with his ILR application, explaining that he had a newborn baby and had contracted a very bad bout of flu and included his GP's letter, and explained that this had caused the 10-day delay in him posting the application. He received ILR, so we thought that discretion had been exercised for the 10-day overstay, as per Paragraph 39E(1) of the Immigration Rules.
The problem is, he didn't mention that 10-day overstay on the Citizenship application form AN, which perhaps he should have done. Last month (9 months post-application), he wrote a letter and posted it to the Home Office, thinking this might be more effective than an email. He asked why the response was delayed, and mentioned that discretion had already been exercised for the 10-day overstay when he'd been awarded ILR. We thought that by raising it in a letter, that may get round the problem of him not having mentioned the overstay on the form AN.
My questions are:
- As he didn't mention the 10-day overstay on naturalisation form AN, will this lead to an automatic refusal? Because in effect he didn't disclose immigration breaches? (Even though we weren't sure it was a breach, as he was granted ILR without the 10-day overstay even being questioned).
- He has written by post to the Home Office regarding the 10-day overstay to mention that discretion was previously exercised. Would this be enough to cover him?
- Is there anything else he should do?
I have another question, separate from the one above. Is it correct that a spouse of a British Citizen is NOT required to show intention to live in the UK? Someone mentioned to me that, as per the Nationality Act, spouses of British Citizens do not have to meet this requirement. Is that correct? If so, why is the question of intention on the AN form for everyone, if it doesn't apply to spouses?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
I'd be very grateful for any advice you can give. I'm a British Citizen (I was granted citizenship in 1986), and my husband, an Iraqi national, applied for naturalisation as the spouse of a British Citizenship, on the 5-year route. We have two children, who are British by birth. He applied in March 2018, a few weeks after he was granted ILR. Now 10 months later, he hasn't had a response. He chased by email twice, and got the standard response.
We have been thinking about what could be causing the delay. It may be that when his FLR(M) expired, he had a 10-day overstay before posting his ILR application to the Home Office. So in effect, he could have been in breach of the immigration rules. He did include a letter with his ILR application, explaining that he had a newborn baby and had contracted a very bad bout of flu and included his GP's letter, and explained that this had caused the 10-day delay in him posting the application. He received ILR, so we thought that discretion had been exercised for the 10-day overstay, as per Paragraph 39E(1) of the Immigration Rules.
The problem is, he didn't mention that 10-day overstay on the Citizenship application form AN, which perhaps he should have done. Last month (9 months post-application), he wrote a letter and posted it to the Home Office, thinking this might be more effective than an email. He asked why the response was delayed, and mentioned that discretion had already been exercised for the 10-day overstay when he'd been awarded ILR. We thought that by raising it in a letter, that may get round the problem of him not having mentioned the overstay on the form AN.
My questions are:
- As he didn't mention the 10-day overstay on naturalisation form AN, will this lead to an automatic refusal? Because in effect he didn't disclose immigration breaches? (Even though we weren't sure it was a breach, as he was granted ILR without the 10-day overstay even being questioned).
- He has written by post to the Home Office regarding the 10-day overstay to mention that discretion was previously exercised. Would this be enough to cover him?
- Is there anything else he should do?
I have another question, separate from the one above. Is it correct that a spouse of a British Citizen is NOT required to show intention to live in the UK? Someone mentioned to me that, as per the Nationality Act, spouses of British Citizens do not have to meet this requirement. Is that correct? If so, why is the question of intention on the AN form for everyone, if it doesn't apply to spouses?
Thanks in advance for your advice.