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Hi everyone,

I'm an EU national with ILR/Settled Status from March 2021 so am able to apply for naturalisation on that basis.

I have just received my Subject Access Request and am disappointed to find I have been out of the UK for 501 days in the past 5 years and 93 days in the previous 12 months.

I have been careful to manage how many days I have spent out, however due to the imminent death of a family member I had to make a trip home and then once they passed away I had to make another trip back which pushed me over the limit.

Are these circumstances something that the HO is likely to exercise discretion on in my favour?

I would happily wait until the absences drop off, however I am likely to enter into a Debt Relief Order which I believe may prevent me from applying in the future so it seems now is the time to apply.

Another long absence this year was due to a university exchange where I was away on university business which I will be able to get them to confirm - could this also fall under grounds for discretion?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Out of curiosity, how did you do a Subject access request to find out the days you were absent from the country? Who did you ask?

I know the Home Office does allow for exceptions, but you will have to carefully explain and prove the reasons for your absences when you ask for discretion. Also you need to make sure you don't exceed the 90 days of absence in the last 12 months before applying.

contorted_svy wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 11, 2022 4:35 pm

Out of curiosity, how did you do a Subject access request to find out the days you were absent from the country? Who did you ask?

I know the Home Office does allow for exceptions, but you will have to carefully explain and prove the reasons for your absences when you ask for discretion. Also you need to make sure you don't exceed the 90 days of absence in the last 12 months before applying.

Hi, I couldn't ask specifically for it but I had to request a basic disclosure of all of my records in home office system and it was inside the pack.

yeah that's what I've been thinking about too, do I need to be within the 90 or does being in the 100 days suffice?

johnnysmith999 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:04 pm

do I need to be within the 90 or does being in the 100 days suffice?

I think you need to be within the 90, because going to 100 is already an exercise of discretion. The general rule-of-thumb is that discretion is only exercised on disregarding one requirement. If multiple requirements are not met, discretion is less likely to be granted.

secret.simon wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:07 pm

johnnysmith999 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:04 pm

do I need to be within the 90 or does being in the 100 days suffice?

I think you need to be within the 90, because going to 100 is already an exercise of discretion. The general rule-of-thumb is that discretion is only exercised on disregarding one requirement. If multiple requirements are not met, discretion is less likely to be granted.

ah I see, depending on which absences are waived I might still be over 450 days (but under 500), would this also still not be acceptable? If all of them are accepted (i.e family members + university exchange) then i would be below the 450 limit, but I'm not sure what they would even accept.

All of the excess absences happened in the final 12 months, so if they were disregarded would they also be disregarded from the 90 days in 12 months?

Another thing is I didn't have CSI, I'm aware that this requirement has been de facto removed but does it still count as 'discretion'

Thanks!

johnnysmith999 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:04 pm

yeah that's what I've been thinking about too, do I need to be within the 90 or does being in the 100 days suffice?

In all honesty, the less I personally have to rely from kindness and understanding from the Home Office the better I feel, I wouldn't want to ask for discretion on two different accounts if I can avoid it.

johnnysmith999 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 11, 2022 5:28 pm

ah I see, depending on which absences are waived I might still be over 450 days (but under 500), would this also still not be acceptable? If all of them are accepted (i.e family members + university exchange) then i would be below the 450 limit, but I'm not sure what they would even accept.

All of the excess absences happened in the final 12 months, so if they were disregarded would they also be disregarded from the 90 days in 12 months?

Another thing is I didn't have CSI, I'm aware that this requirement has been de facto removed but does it still count as 'discretion'

Thanks!

I don't think they "waive" absences, they exercise discretion and disregard them. If a large chunk happened this year, that would mean exercising discretion twice:

- on the 450 days absence limit in the qualifying period
- on the 90 days absence limit in the last 12 months


If this was me, I'd wait until I only have 90 days or less in the last 12 months before applying and not try my luck.