Immigrationboards.com

Where the applicant has absences of between 480-900 for applications under section 6(1) of the British Nationality Act 1981, or 300-540 for applications under section 6(2) and otherwise meets the requirements you must only consider exercising discretion where the applicant has established their home, employment, family and finances in the UK, and one or more of the following applies:
• at least 2 years residence (for applications under section 6(1)), or 1 year (for applications under section 6(2)), without substantial absences immediately prior to the beginning of the qualifying period. If the period of absence is greater than 730 days (for section 6(1)) or 450 days (for section 6(2)) the period of residence must be at least 3 or 2 years respectively
• the excess absences are the result of:
o postings abroad in Crown service under the UK government or in service designated under section 2(3) of the British Nationality act 1981.
o accompanying a British citizen spouse or civil partner on an appointment overseas
• the excess absences were an unavoidable consequence of the nature of the applicant’s career, such as a merchant seaman or employment with a
multinational company based in the UK with frequent travel abroad
• exceptionally compelling reasons of an occupational or compassionate nature to justify naturalisation now, such as a firm job offer where British citizenship is a statutory or mandatory requirement
• the excess absences were because the applicant was unable to return to the UK because of global pandemic

Where an applicant’s absences exceed those covered above it is highly unlikely that discretion would be appropriate. You should normally refuse the application and advise them to re-apply when they are able to bring themselves with the statutory requirements, unless there are specific circumstances that warrant exceptional consideration at a senior level.

sspsathya wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 26, 2020 5:09 pm

Dear Immigration Board Gurus,

I'm in ILR(Issue date: 26 May 2019) for more than a year now. Actually I do not meet the residence requirements to apply naturalisation right now. I have have too many absences in last 5 years. The details are

Departure Date Return Date Full days absent
------------------ ----------------- -----------------
25 November 2019 18 December 2019 22
14 January 2018 17 December 2018 336
23 March 2017 29 August 2017 158

The actual reason I have too many absences is I was in post maternity leave for 1 year which my company have offered me, so I went to my home country. Is this reason acceptable to apply for naturalisation? Is this valid reason to say? Please advice.

Thanks in advance.